FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Walker County, Alabama

Aldridge Lookout Tower

1941 Aermotor MC-39 fire tower near Jasper, Walker County, Alabama; dedicated June 18, 1941; NHLR-registered 2023 and on private property. No staffing or fire sources found.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. NHLR says the tower is located on private property; no owner or permission information found

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor MC-39 towerThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1941
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
518 ft (158 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Walker County, Alabama
Coordinates
33.79108, −87.32913
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-aldridge

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 3.1 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

  1. 1941 BuiltCompleted by May 29, 1941 per a 1941 newspaper report quoted on Forest Lookouts; dedicated June 18, 1941. NHLR lists the build year as unknown.Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1941 and 2023
  3. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2023 as US 1745, AL 83; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: nhlr.org
  4. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Aldridge tower stands just southwest of Jasper in Walker County, Alabama, and the Alabama Forestry Commission administers it.1,2

It was first planned as a wooden fire tower.2 A 1941 newspaper report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts site, says the State Department of Conservation announced that design for the site. Friends of the late Abner B. Aldridge offered to pay the extra cost of an all-steel structure instead, and the department approved the plan.2

By late May 1941 the all-steel tower was complete, and it was dedicated on June 18, 1941, before about 700 people.2 The stone tablet at its base is dated A.D. 1941 and honors Abner Bell Aldridge for his work on conservation in Alabama.2 The Register gives no build year and lists it as unknown.1

The Register describes the tower as a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39, with an elevation of 518 feet (158 m).1 It was registered on July 24, 2023, as US 1745, AL 83, and Jason Johns nominated it.1

The sources I read say nothing about who staffed the tower or what fires it watched.1,2

The Register notes a site visit on July 23, 2022, and says the tower is located on private property.1 Visitors should not assume they can reach or climb it. Nobody should go onto the land or climb the tower without the owner's permission. A December 2025 column by Thomas Kaufmann says many of Alabama's historic lookouts are unsafe and illegal to climb, but the column does not name this tower.3

  1. Aldridge Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/aldridge-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Aldridge, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/aldridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. 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

Photo of Aldridge Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Aldridge Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Aldridge Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Aldridge Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: type, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.