FIRE TOWERS: As promised yesterday, additional information from
Elk State Forest on the seven fire towers erected in the early
1900s:

* Fox Mountain Fire Tower, Potter County, was on a ridge known
locally as “Fox Mountain” at an elevation of 2,400 feet and with a
view of more than 170,000 acres. The tower was completed in July of
1920. The original cabin burned down in 1942 and was rebuilt later
that year. The cabin was torn down in 1956, and the tower
dismantled in 1987.

* Boot Jack Fire Tower, southeast of Ridgway, Elk County, is a
60-foot tower built in 1921. A 26-foot extension was added in 1939.
A stone cabin built in 1939 to replace a wooden frame structure is
still standing.

* Whittimore Fire Tower, just south of Emporium, was built in
1921 and has an observation area of 175,000 acres. The cabin at the
base of the tower was torn down in 1965.

* Wildwood Tower in Jones Township, Elk County, was on a ridge
overlooking the headwaters of the Driftwood Branch and the East
Branch of the Clarion River. This tower, built in 1922, was
connected by phone line to the Home Telephone Co. of Straights.
This tower was dismantled in 1976.

* Three Runs Fire Tower, Cameron County, was 6.7 air miles south
of Sinnemahoning on the Quehanna Plateau and the view covered about
150,000 acres in Cameron, Clearfield and Clinton counties. This
tower, built in 1923, was dismantled in 1979.

* Winslow Hill Fire Tower, near Benezette, Elk County, was built
in 1925 at an elevation of 2,000 feet and provided a view of the
Bennett’s Branch Valley but was not tall enough to provide an
adequate view to the south. It was dismantled in 2001.

* Brooks Run Fire Tower, built on Grove Hill between Driftwood
and Sinnemahoning in 1921, at an elevation of 2,380 feet, provided
one of the highest points in Cameron County. The tower was built in
1921, and was dismantled in 1940 and reassembled on its present
site in 1941. The view from this tower covers more than 260,000
acres. The wooden frame structure to provide living quarters for
the observer was built in 1941 and is still in place.

Much of today’s information was obtained from records maintained
by former Assistant District Forester of the Elk State Forest, John
R. Sevinsky.