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Fire lookout · Elk County, Pennsylvania

Wildwood Tower Site

Elk County, PA steel Blaw-Knox tower built 1922 and dismantled 1976; a 330-foot state telecom tower occupies the site with a 12-by-16-foot shelter built in 2002, and only concrete piers remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Dismantled in 1976. A 330-foot state telecommunications tower and a 12-by-16-foot shelter built in 2002 occupy the site; the township says only the concrete piers of the old tower can still be located.

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 towerSteel Blaw-Knox tower (register)The design: Blaw-Knox
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1922
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,375 ft (724 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forests & Waters (built the tower in 1922)
Land
Unknown
Location
Elk County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.57451, −78.46641
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-wildwood

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1922 BuiltConstructed by the Pennsylvania Department of Forests & Waters; steel Blaw-Knox tower per the registerSources: firetower.org, jonestownship.com
  2. No record between 1922 and 1976
  3. 1976 RemovedDismantled in 1976Sources: firetower.org, jonestownship.com
  4. No record between 1976 and 2002
  5. 2002 Event12 by 16 foot equipment shelter constructed in 2002 on the site; the source does not date the 330-foot state telecommunications towerSource: jonestownship.com
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  7. 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.

The Wildwood lookout stood near a ridge along the Continental Divide, in the Straight Creek area of Jones Township, Elk County.1,2 The Pennsylvania Department of Forests & Waters built it in 1922.2 The register calls it a steel Blaw-Knox tower.1 The state began building towers after more than 2.6 million acres burned between 1913 and 1922, and seven went up on the Elk State Forest between 1920 and 1925.2

A telephone line linked the tower to the Home Telephone Company at the former village of Straights.2

A 1926 item in the Pittsburg Daily Post placed it on the highest point in Elk County, at an altitude of 2,340 feet, and praised the view over the refuge and forest.3 The register gives an elevation of 2,375 feet (724 m), so the two figures disagree.1

The tower was dismantled in 1976.1,2

The township says the site now holds a 330-foot state telecommunications tower and a 12-by-16-foot equipment shelter built in 2002.2 It adds that only the concrete piers of the old tower can still be found there.2 The township page does not describe public access to the site.2

  1. Wildwood Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/wildwood-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Wildwood, Jones Township, https://jonestownship.com/wildwood/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Wildwood, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/wildwood.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: type, 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, status, agency, 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.