Seneca Point & Fire Tower, Cook Forest State Park

Cook Forest offers choose-your-own-adventure sightseeing. One option is to park in the ADA-compliant lot and walk a short distance to the Seneca Point Overlook, which gives gorgeous views of the Clarion river from a vantage point of 1,600 feet. You’ll be able to take in the natural splendor of Cook Forest and the river valley below, which is dotted with “Indian mills.” These small, bowl-shaped indentations in stone were used by local Indigenous peoples, predecessors of the Seneca tribe, to grind seeds and grains. 

The area is an ancient forest and national landmark that has been named one of “The Best Old-Growth Forests” in America and rightly so, as Cook Forest is home to some of the tallest trees east of the Rockies. Its patches of old growth trees are variously known as “The Ancients” and a “Forest Cathedral.” Whatever you call them, once you see them, you’ll understand the awe that they impart.  

If you want to add a little adrenaline to your sightseeing, you can climb the 87.5-foot fire tower at Seneca Point, which will offer you even better views—and the thrill of climbing the structure that was once used to spot forest fires.

For a mobility friendly experience, the Cook Forest Sensory Trail is a one-quarter-mile paved loop designed for wheel-chair ease with guide cables for visually impaired visitors. The park also has a driving self tour.

As you take in Cook Forest and the river below, you can reflect on the park’s long history. Before Europeans arrived in the area, the Seneca Nation of the Iriquois confederacy used these lands for hunting. After the French and Indian War, the English purchased the land from the Iroquois, eventually naming the woods after John Cook, the first American to settle in the area in 1826. His sons ran various mills that ran on water power from the river, and many of the nearby properties are still maintained by the Cook family. In the 1920s, the Cook Forest Association was established to protect the old growth trees that remained. The firetower was built in 1929.