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Fire lookout · Choctaw County, Alabama

Allison Fire Tower (Rudder Hill Tower)

Rudder Hill fire tower in Choctaw County, Alabama: a 100-foot International Derrick built by the Allison Lumber Company in 1953-54, NHLR-registered 2010. No staffing or fire sources found.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot International Derrick tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1954
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
293 ft (89 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Choctaw County, Alabama
Coordinates
32.16198, −88.15463
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-allison-rudder-hill

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 2.9 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. 1953 Replaced by a new structureRegister description: built by the Allison Lumber Company as a replacement for an earlier wooden Rudder Hill TowerSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1954 BuiltRegister's Built field gives 1954; its description says constructed in 1953 (see resolved_conflicts)Source: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1954 and 2010
  4. 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 18, 2010 as US 866, AL 44; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
  5. 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 Allison Fire Tower, also called the Rudder Hill Tower, stands in Choctaw County, Alabama, and the Alabama Forestry Commission administers it.1,2

The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 100-foot International Derrick tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 It says the Allison Lumber Company built the tower in 1953 to take the place of an older wooden tower of the same name.1 The Register's build field gives 1954 instead, so its own two dates differ by a year, and I have not been able to settle which one is right.1

The University of West Alabama holds a collection of Allison Lumber Company papers.3 Its archive listing includes an August 1926 letter from Mr. Allison to Major Bunker about a lookout tower, but it does not say which tower.3 I have not linked that letter to Rudder Hill.

The Register lists the tower as registered on January 18, 2010, as US 866, AL 44, with Thomas Kaufmann as nominator.1 Jackson's Ramblings repeats the Register's description but gives the state number as AL 45.4 I have used the Register's number.1

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

The Register links a drone video from Jackson's Ramblings, but it gives no date for the footage, and none of the sources I read describe the tower's condition now.1 Neither the Register nor the Forest Lookouts page says whether the public can visit or climb it.1,2 Check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before going, and do not climb the tower without its permission.

  1. Allison Fire Tower (Rudder Hill Tower), National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/allison-fire-tower-rudder-hill-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Allison, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/allison.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Allison Lumber Company Collection, University of West Alabama Julia Tutwiler Library, https://www.uwa.edu/julia-tutwiler-library/alabama-room-archives/allison-lumber-company-collection/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Allison Fire Tower (Rudder Hill Tower), Jackson's Ramblings (jacksonsramblings.com), https://jacksonsramblings.com/allison-fire-tower-rudder-hill-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Allison Fire Tower (Rudder Hill Tower)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) 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
  3. 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

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