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Fire lookout · Venango County, Pennsylvania

Victory Tower Site

Steel fire tower on a Venango County farm, built 1925 and removed 1959 per the register; 1926 newspaper items name its observer.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The register says it was removed in 1959. No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerGalvanized steel tower, 65 ft (19.8 m) high; the register calls it a steel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1925
Height
65 ft (19.8 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Venango County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.31130, −79.90320
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-victory

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.7 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1925 BuiltNewspaper item of September 7, 1925 says the tower was practically complete; the register gives 1925Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1926 FireByron Blair discovered the first forest fire of the 1926 season in Venango County; about twenty acres burned before it was checkedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1926 StaffedByron Blair was manning the tower in April 1926Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey description places reference mark No. 2 directly beneath the state forest fire towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1935 and 1959
  6. 1959 RemovedThe register gives 1959 as the removal yearSource: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1959 and 2008
  8. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008, nominated by Henry IsenbergSource: firetower.org
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Victory's fire tower went up in 1925 in Venango County, on Mrs. Laura Taylor's farm.1,2 A September 1925 newspaper item says the observation tower, a half mile from Springville and eight miles from Franklin, was nearly finished.2 The tower was galvanized steel and 65 feet high, and it stood in woodland.2 The register calls it a steel Aermotor tower built that year.1,2

On April 12, 1926, Byron Blair, who was manning the new tower, found the first forest fire of that season in Venango County.2 Pennsylvania Railroad crews had the blaze under control that day, after about twenty acres had burned.2

The register gives 1959 as the year the tower was removed.1 A 1935 Coast and Geodetic Survey description places a reference mark directly beneath the state forest fire tower.2 The survey station, on Pecan Hill, lies about 37 feet from that mark and roughly eight road miles southwest of Franklin, along State Highway 8.2

No source we read describes what remains on the hill today, and none says whether the site is open to visitors.1,2

  1. Victory Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/victory-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Victory - Forest Lookouts, Eastern U.S. Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/victory.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, county, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: location, links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, staffing, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.