Fire Lookouts Sites

Built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Antlers Guard Station was originally used to house project and fire crews. Later on, guard stations lost their utility, because the Forest Service had quicker ways to get to forest areas without these stations. Starting in the 1990s, the Antlers Guard Station was rented out to the public, and in 1991 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Forest Service fire lookout tower on Washington Bald Mountain, built in 1918, was an enclosed wood type and was 55-feet high. It was replaced in 1934 with a 70-foot steel tower constructed by the Indian Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) out of the Passamaquoddy camp. The tower was dismantled in 2007.

The historic Barfoot fire lookout tower in Coronado National Forest was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1938. NRHP Nomination Form: "Barfoot lookout is located on the Douglas Ranger District and was built in 1935, possibly by a CCC crew. The lookout house is an L-4 type wooden house measuring 14 ft by 14 ft. This complex also includes a wood frame shed, privy, concrete cistern and an attractive, rustic style native stone retaining wall. The lookout complex represents one of the best examples of its type in the Southwestern Region. Study of historic photographs indicates no major modifications have...

"The CCC camp at Bass River State Forest, Camp S-55, lasted from 1933 to 1942, throughout the entire life of CCC. ... There were usually 200 men at the camp, which was a full complement. The CCC members performed wide range of conservation work. The young men of the CCC built park roads, trails, bridle paths, bridges for vehicles, ponds for fish and waterfowl, lookout towers, nature observatory shelters, picnic areas, cabins, fireplaces, campgrounds, recreational lakes, and landscaping. The most noteworthy feat was the creation of the 67-acre Lake Absegami, by damming two streams flowing through the forest."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built "roads, trails,bridle paths, vehicle bridges, ponds for fish and waterfowl, lookouttowers, a nature observatory, shelters, picnic areas, fireplaces,campgrounds, recreational lakes, and worked on landscaping and firefighting. Today you can also find a museum devoted to the CCC in New Hampshire here."

The historic Bear Mountain fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). NRHP nomination form: "This Aermotor MC-E4 steel tower, located off the Alpine Ranger District, was constructed in 1933, probably by the CCC. It is 45 ft 9 in high and has a 7 ft by 7 ft steel cab. The storage shed (an old cabin) was built in 1928. The present cabin and privy were built in 1940. There was a wooden platform tower at this location in the early 1920s. The lookout complex is situated within a primitive area and is also the location of...

This fieldstone and wood building (tower with stone base and wood shelter at the top) was erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Fire towers are endangered due to their isolated locations and because they are no longer necessary for fire prevention/control.

The lookout buildings were constructed between 1936 and 1938 by members of Company 2515 of the CCC. The cabin was used for lookout workers until the early 1980s and can now be rented by guests.

Black Butte is a cluster of peaks in the Shasta National Forest. In the 1930s, the CCC built trails up to the summit as well as the Black Butte lookout tower. The tower was destroyed by a storm in 1962. Another was built in 1963 but removed to another location in 1973.

The Black Mountain Lookout Tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and was completed in 1940. The tower is 14′x14′ with a catwalk on a stone foundation. It functioned as the lookout for the north end of Bighorn National Forest. No longer in use, the tower remains a popular hiking destination. In the summer of 2014 the U.S. Forest Service partnered with non-profit HistoriCorps to sponsor extensive rehabilitation work on the tower. Volunteers completed a variety of tasks with the intention of the tower becoming a rental cabin or interpretive site.

From the Plumas National Forest website: "Black Mountain Lookout is situated on the eastern edge of the Beckwourth Ranger District, 10 miles from Highway 395, near Milford, California. The lookout was constructed in 1934 and is a great example of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) architecture. The C-3-type lookout is situated on a single story 10 foot tower and is extremely well-preserved. The lookout offers striking views of Honey Lake to the north, and Last Chance Creek to the south. The rental is available from Memorial weekend through October. The fee for an overnight stay is $60."

The historic Bluewater fire lookout tower in Lincoln National Forest was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. NRHP Nomination Form: "Located on the Mayhill Ranger District, this 45 ft high steel tower with a 7 ft by 7 ft steel cab represents an Aermotor LX-E4 type or an International Derrick Company tower. The Forest Service records are not clear on this point. Research efforts have not been able to clarify this. It appears that while the International Derrick Company did manufacture steel towers, they did not differ much from the more common Aermotor towers. Other Forest Service records cited...

The Breckenridge Lookout is in the Greenhorn Ranger District: "Breckenridge Lookout, elevation 7,548 feet, is the southern most lookout on the Sequoia National Forest. It is located approximately 50 miles east of Bakersfield off of the Caliente-Bodfish Road on Forest Service Road 28S62. This fire detection location was established in 1912; the original lookout being a crows nest observation platform in a tree on the top of the mountain. The current lookout a C-3 style live-in cab, was built in 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and as such is considered a historically significant structure. Breckenridge...

The West Lookout Tower was completed by CCC laborers in 1936. The building is a two story structure overlooking a valley. The style of the lookout is classified as parks rustic.

The historic Buck Mountain fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). NRHP Nomination Form: "Located on the Long Valley Ranger District, this 30 ft high CT-2 wooden x-brace tower has a 14 ft by 14 ft L-4 wood cab on top. It was built in 1933, probably by a CCC crew. The steps were slightly altered in 1953. The timbers were treated for preservation in 1957 and the roof was reshingled in 1983. These modifications have not had a negative impact on the property. This represents the best example of a surviving CT-2 type tower in the...

"Bunker Tower is an observation tower on the peak of Cheaha Mountain in Cheaha State Park located in Cleburne County, Alabama, U.S.A. The tower is located at the peak of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama. The tower is a large stone building completed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It originally had park offices and a gift shop in the wings on either side of the observation tower. The tower is immediately adjacent to the very tall Alabama Public Television WCIQ transmitter tower which aids it being a central meeting place that can be easily found despite...

Located in the Payette National Forest, this lookout tower were built by the CCC in 1934. A sign near the site (pictured at www.advrider.com) reads: "In 1934 and 1935, Aeromotor Company of Chicago manufactured the 85-foot tall galvanized steel lookout tower. The USDA Forest Service in cooperation with the Civilian Conservation Corps assembled the prefabricated framework on the granitic ridgetop toll, known as Carey Dome."

"The 'Cees', as they came to be known, were instrumental in building much of the original infrastructure of the Inyo National Forest. They were almost entirely strong, young men who needed work, a paycheck and a direction in their lives. Construction of fire stations, trails, bridges, roads and even airport runway strips were included in their duties. Lillian Guesman of Mammoth Lakes recalls:' ...they were great kids. I'd play the piano and they'd sing...we always had such a good time.'" from: https://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/about/centennial.shtml CCC Camp F-99 (pictured below) was also active in Inyo National Forest.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.)'s Camp Toumey was stationed at Mohawk State Forest from June 25, 1933 to July 26, 1941. "Named for James W. Toumey, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry, CCC men from this camp lived among the rugged hills and panoramic vistas of northwestern Connecticut. This camp was originally designed as a camp exclusively for veterans of World Was I and, as such, the enrollees were older. But as the veterans' need for employment waned, younger enrollees were gradually added to the camp." Among other projects linked to from this page, accomplishments included: "fighting forest fires; making improvements...

The 159th Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps under the command of Lieutenant Leon Jeffers had a camp at Hay Lake outside Patten, Maine from June 1933 to September 1937. The camp's main function was fire protection. From Michael Earl Williams in a tribute to his father, a member of the 159th, on the Maine State Archives website: On October 16, 1936, Mac was assigned to the 159th Company at Fort Williams, Maine and into Hay Lake Camp, about twenty miles north & west of the town of Patten. Very remote and rugged, these wooded, mountainous forests were where work began...

The nearly 2,700 acres encompassing what is now Cedarville State Forest was originally purchased as a forest demonstration area by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1930. Located in Charles and Prince George’s County, CCC project S-54 was initiated here in May of 1933, with Camp 335-C building roads and trails for fire protection and increased recreational access within the park. Camp 335-C was one of only a handful of African American units in Maryland. The Cedarville camp numbered 192 men, and a camp work list dated from October 1934 included the construction of truck trails, forest stand improvements,...

From the Albuquerque Journal, April 23, 1935: "A new fire lookout tower, rearing it's steel frame more than 45 feet above the summit of Cedro Peak in the Scandia mountains, and a new automobile road leading to it are rapidly nearing completion, according to Cibola National Forest officials. Visibility will be greatly increased by replacing the antiquated 30 foot pole tower of years past, and within 30 days another important link will be welded into the chain of fire prevention agencies of the Forest Service. CCC boys from Camp Manzano, under Forest Service supervision are pushing construction in preparation for the fire season...

In the 1890s, the city of Chicopee purchased a tract of land along Cooley Brook for the creation of a reservoir, which later took place in 1926. Nearly a decade later during the Great Depression the area was selected for expansion and the creation of a state park by the Civilian Conservation Corps The CCC operated Camp 1156 in Chicopee, Massachusetts from 1935 to 1937. The camp that resided in Chicopee was near Cooley Brook Reservoir where Chicopee Memorial State Park is located today and housed about two hundred young men. CCC workers conducted efforts throughout the Chicopee Memorial State Park...

"Chiricahua National Monument was constructed by a single Civilian Conservation Corps camp, NM2A, between 1934 and 1940. These young men reconstructed the Massai Point Road and built the trails, campground structures and visitor center, the lookout on Sugarloaf Peak, and the exhibit building on Massai Point. The buildings were assembled from boulders or blocks quarried from native welded tuff (hardened ash) found in the surrounding mountains. Designed in the National Park Service Rustic style, the buildings sit low and close to the landscape mimicking the surrounding rock environment and have been screened with native vegetation. A CCC exhibit in the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the fire lookout tower on Cinnamon Butte in 1934.   Cinnamon Butte lies 5 miles north of Diamond Lake, east of highway 138, and west of the Mt Theilsen Wilderness Area. The lookout tower is 35 feet high with a 14x14 foot observation cabin, all built entirely of wood. This was a standard form and size of lookout tower.  It still stands. The CCC built several fire lookouts for the US Forest Service in Umpqua National Forest, dozens around Oregon and hundreds across the country.    

"Clarkco is one of Mississippi's eight original state parks. It was constructed in 1938 by Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1437, which, with other CCC companies, stayed in barracks in a camp along U.S. Hwy 45 within the park. Four of the original cabins and two large picnic shelters built by the CCC men are still in use. Unfortunately the original water tower and lookout tower fell into ruins and were removed... A side trail branches off from the lake circuit trail at the Island Rest Area, leading in 0.8 mile to the site of the CCC camp, which was used between...

In operation from Dec. 9, 1933 to Jul. 30, 1941, C.C.C. Camp Filley conducted extensive development work in the Cockaponset State Forest in Middlesex County, Connecticut. Camp Hadley, Company #2101, also operated on this site, from Sept. 5, 1935 to Apr. 4, 1941. Projects included tree planting; renovations to the Forest Ranger's house; construction of a lumber shed, garage, brick charcoal kiln, a picnic shelter, and clean-up after the flood of 1936 in the town of Middletown. Work also included development at Chatfield Hollow State Park, designated as such in 1949. It was originally a Civilian Conservation Corps recreation area within Cockaponset State Forest.

CCC crews built this fire lookout tower at Coot Mountain. The tower overlooks the Current River and the National Scenic Riverways to the north and east. It is at the end of a gravel road though relatively easily accessible. Outbuildings were for the rangers who occupied the tower in this remote location.

Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1931 under the Hoover Administration, but was not improved until President Franklin Roosevelt came into office in 1933. The refuge lies on the southwestern edge of the Sand Hills of Nebraska and it 45,000+ acres include one of the great wilderness areas of the NWR system. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “The earliest government actions on the Refuge were tree planting and small construction projects by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The CCC built several buildings still in use today at the Refuge headquarters....

"Crossroads Fire Tower is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A for its association with the emphasis upon conservation of the abundance of natural resources in this area. This was also the original mandate of the Civilian Conservation Corps.  It is also being nominated under Criterion C as a good example of a fire tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.  This nomination is also being submitted under the multiple property context of “Facilities Constructed by the CCC in Arkansas, 1933-1942.” ...The State Forestry Commission chose a location known as Crossroads to erect...

From the Texas CCC Parks website: "An extensive mountain range provides the setting for one of the most majestic of the state parks and one of the earliest CCC projects in Texas. Work at Davis Mountains State Park commenced in June 1933..." Skyline Drive, Overlook Shelter, two Mess Halls (both adobe; one used by CCC as recreation hall for a short time, currently a residence; the other currently storage), Stone Picnic Tables, Stone Fireplaces, Stone Steps, and Latrine. The park's adobe 'Indian Lodge' was also built by the CCC, as was a rest stop located just outside the park."  

A historical marker erected in 1994 explains the CCC's role in the area: "J.H. Ratcliff's 1880s sawmill and village here gave way to major timber industry operations that by the early 1930s had decimated Houston County's densest virgin forest. As part of federal efforts to restore the nation's natural resources, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp F-4-T was built at this site in 1933-34, and the Davy Crockett National Forest was established in this area in 1935. CCC workers constructed fire towers, built roads, developed an old sawmill pond into a public lake with recreational facilities, and planted about 3,000,000 trees. Ratcliff...

The Dee Wright Observatory in the Willamette National Forest was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and was completed in 1935. It was named after the construction crew's foreman who died a year before the observatory was completed. "The observatory is an open shelter built with lava stone found at the construction site. The viewing windows are cut to specifically highlight the neighboring mountains. These "lava tube" viewing holes allow visitors to easily identify the different Cascade peaks. There is also a 36 inch (90 cm) diameter, bronze azimuth-like "peak finder" on the observatory’s roof to help visitors locate nearby geologic features as...

The Delilah Lookout is in the Hume Lake Ranger District: "Delilah Lookout, elevation 5,176, is approximately 45 miles east of Fresno California in the Southern Sierras. Delilah was established in 1916 as a site for fire detection. It has seen several incarnations including a 50 foot metal tower with live-in cab constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. In 1960 this structure was replaced with a 70 foot tall metal tower from Lemoore NAS."

Construction began on the Airey Work Center in the DeSoto National Forest in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Initially known as the Biloxi National Forest, the buildings included the lookout tower, office, and equipment shop as part of the original site development. The Work Center was a 2.5 story, timber-frame maintenance and storage building with a one-story residence. The lookout tower was a prefabricated steel fire tower with stairs, and a cabin at the top. Physically located closest to McHenry, and official address listed as Perkinston.

The historic Diamond Point fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). NRHP Nomination Form: "This 30 ft high steel Aermotor MC-24 tower with a 12 ft by 12 ft cab is located on the Payson Ranger District and was erected in the fall of 1936 by a CCC crew. The wood frame cabin was built in 1941. The lookout tower has been modified. Metal steps were added in 1984 and at an unknown date the original windows were replaced with sliding aluminum windows and the wooden shutters removed. The wood frame cabin with a simple gable roof and...

Not to be confused with the park of the same name in Dubuque, Iowa, the WPA did extensive work on Eagle Point Park from 1935-1937. Workers deepened and widened Battle Creek, built trails and footbridges, and constructed many stone structures in the park: "Overlooking the Mississippi River and General Zebulon Pike Lock and Dam (No. 13) are the 164 acres known as Eagle Point Park. Visitors are provided with spectacular views of the river and parts of Illinois, and Iowa. Shelter buildings constructed from native stone are available by reservation. The park offers many more amenities, such as: picnic tables, barbecue...

"Early in the 1930s there was a CCC camp in area and they built the El Caso firetower ..." NRHP nomination form: "This Aermotor MC-24 lookout tower is located on the Quemado Ranger District and was built in 1934. The tower is 30 ft high and has a 12-ft by 12-ft wooden cab. The associated cabin and privy were also built in 1934. This lookout tower is unchanged from its initial construction. It represents one of the best examples of an Aermotor MC-24 tower and cab in the Southwestern Region. Because the lookout tower, cabin and privy retain excellent integrity of...

In addition to the New Deal Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration ( PRRA), the PWA, CCC, and Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration (PRERA) all operated on the island as well. As on the US mainland, the CCC built many of the trails, lookouts, buildings, and roads in various federal and insular parks and forests, including in the majestic El Yunque National Rainforest. "El Yunque is a monument to the impact of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Most of the trails and observation points, and even Highway 191, were CCC projects-and they have seen better days. The major roadside recreational sites include two interpretive trails, the tiny...

"Great Blue Hill has a observation tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the New Deal in the 1930's (The Eliot Tower). The views of the city and Greater Boston Area on a clear day are amazing and make this a very popular spot for families."   (https://takeadaytrip.com)