Fire Lookout Tower - Briar MO

City:: Briar, MO
Site Type:: Forestry and Agriculture, Fire Lookouts
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Conservation and Public Lands, Work Relief Programs, US Forest Service (USFS)
Completed:: 1936
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

This fire lookout tower outside Briar was a New Deal project completed in 1936. It was almost surely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under the direction of the US Forest Service, but that needs to be confirmed.

The tower design is typical of the era. The Briar Lookout is intact, including a stairway extending to the ground. Access is restricted by a surrounding high chain link fence topped with barbed wire for safety reasons. It is one of the southernmost lookout towers in Missouri.

: Briar Lookout Tower sign

Source notes

Missouri Lookout Tower Inventory website

Site originally submitted by Charles Swaney on July 19, 2015.

Location Info

Highway 160
Briar, Missouri 63935

Location notes: The site is just off of Highway 160, 2 1/2 miles west of Briar on the south side of the road.

Coordinates: 36.651244, -91.014251

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2 comments on “Fire Lookout Tower – Briar MO”

Mikey Allen February 13, 2021

This tower is located only a short walk less than a mile from a private property that is currently owned by or previously owned by a member of my immediate family. I know the property was owned by a member of my immediate family from the early 1980s as I was born in 1981 and they lived on the property literally next door to the tower from as far back as I am able to remember and my my uncle actually grew up on that property he could probably provide stories about it that date back to the 1950s till at least 2015 and I can get a pretty accurate history of the Briar Fire Lookout Tower if it would help just let me know

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Derek August 30, 2021

My grandmother use to have to climb this tower to take her dad lunches that worked in this tower looking for fires. Probably happened in the late 40s or early 50s.

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2 comments on “Fire Lookout Tower – Briar MO”

Mikey Allen February 13, 2021

This tower is located only a short walk less than a mile from a private property that is currently owned by or previously owned by a member of my immediate family. I know the property was owned by a member of my immediate family from the early 1980s as I was born in 1981 and they lived on the property literally next door to the tower from as far back as I am able to remember and my my uncle actually grew up on that property he could probably provide stories about it that date back to the 1950s till at least 2015 and I can get a pretty accurate history of the Briar Fire Lookout Tower if it would help just let me know

Derek August 30, 2021

My grandmother use to have to climb this tower to take her dad lunches that worked in this tower looking for fires. Probably happened in the late 40s or early 50s.