Fire lookout · Marengo County, Alabama
Aimwell Fire Tower
1951 Aermotor fire tower in Marengo County, Alabama, built by the Alabama Forestry Commission; NHLR-registered 2010. No staffing, fire or access sources found.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor tower (model not named)The design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1951
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 305 ft (93 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Marengo County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 32.14600, −87.91235
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-aimwell
View from the cab
What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.
Downloads about 3.0 MB of terrain data the first time.
Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.
History
Then and now
- 1951 BuiltRegister build year; built by the Alabama Forestry Commission as the second 100-foot Aermotor tower in Marengo CountySource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1951 and 2010
- 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 24, 2010 as US 894, AL 52; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
- TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.
Old maps of this spot
USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Aimwell Fire Tower stands in Marengo County, Alabama, and the Alabama Forestry Commission administers it.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the commission built it in 1951.1 It is a 100-foot Aermotor tower, and the Register calls it the second such tower the commission built in the county and the only one left there.1
The Register gives the site elevation as 305 feet (93 m).1 Its entry was registered on December 24, 2010, as US 894, AL 52, and Thomas Kaufmann nominated it.1
The sources I read say nothing about who staffed the tower, what fires it watched, or whether it was ever closed or moved.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page for Aimwell lists only the county and the agency.2
Kaufmann's December 2025 column on Alabama's lookouts says the Aermotor MC-39 was the steel tower type found most often in the state.3 The Register does not name a model for Aimwell, so the sources do not show whether it is one.1 The same column estimates that probably fewer than 75 historic towers still stand in Alabama, and says many are unsafe and illegal to climb.3
Nothing I read says whether the public can see or climb Aimwell.1,2 Anyone planning a visit should ask the Alabama Forestry Commission first, and should not climb the tower without its permission.
- Aimwell Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/aimwell-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Aimwell, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/aimwell.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Thomas Kaufmann, "Keeping Alabama's historic lookout towers," 1819 News, https://1819news.com/news/item/thomas-kaufmann-keeping-alabamas-historic-lookout-towers (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: ownership, links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story
More about this lookout elsewhere
- NHLR register entry US 894 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Thomas Kaufmann: Keeping Alabama's historic lookout towers (1819 News) (opens another site)
- Aimwell (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.