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Fire lookout · Forest County, Pennsylvania

Zimmerman Tower Site

Steel Aermotor tower on Zimmerman Hill, Elk County PA, once a U.S. Forest Service lookout; removed, with its location still evident on FR228.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says removed; a trail listing says it was removed in the 1990s

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Reached by FR228 in the Allegheny National Forest; the trail listing shows a Permanently Closed label, so check the road before driving in

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Graded dirt and gravel road; the trail listing says the tower location is still evident

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,878 ft (572 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Unknown
Location
Forest County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.40117, −78.99448
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-zimmerman

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 3.3 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. 1940 EventA 1940 map of the Hallton area labels a Zimmerman Hill Fire TowerSource: pastmaps.com
  2. No record between 1940 and 2008
  3. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  4. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes a steel Aermotor tower that the U.S. Forest Service owned.1 A 1940 map of the Hallton area already labels a Zimmerman Hill Fire Tower.2 The map label shares the Zimmerman name with the register entry, but no source says they describe the same tower.1,2

A map listing places the tower in Elk County.3 Its registered date on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register is September 16, 2008.1

The register says the tower has been removed.1 A trail listing says it was removed in the 1990s and that its location is still evident.4

The route is FR228, which the trail listing also calls Zimmerman Fire Tower Road.4 It is a graded dirt and gravel track through the Allegheny National Forest, so the land is public.4 The listing carries a "Permanently Closed" label, so check the road's status before you drive in.4

  1. Zimmerman Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/zimmerman-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. 1940 Map of Hallton, Warsaw Township, PA, Pastmaps, https://pastmaps.com/map/hallton-elk-county-pa-usgs-topo-1940 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Zimmerman Fire Tower Map - Millstone Township, Pennsylvania, USA, Mapcarta, https://mapcarta.com/22786596 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. FR228 - Zimmerman Fire Tower, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/pennsylvania/fr228-zimmerman-fire-tower-edq0nrx0wzov (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.