Girard Township was named after the eccentric and celebrated Stephen Girard, the merchant prince and banker of Philadelphia.
The township is bound on the north by Elk County, on the east by Covington Township, on the west by Goshen Township and on the south by the Susquehanna River and Bradford and Graham townships.
It has 63.4 square miles of area. The Knobs is the highest elevation in the county at 2,330 feet. The “Knobs” was settled by a number of families including the Krises, Shopes and Smiths.
The Knobs Tower was over 100 feet higher than the former Smith tower in Pine Township. The 60-foot-high metal tower and log cabin was built in 1921.
The tower was located north of Odessa and the former Shope and Krise farms along the Knobs Road.