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Fire lookout · Bibb County, Alabama

Bibb Lookout Tower

1949 Aermotor MC-39 fire tower in Bibb County, Alabama, administered by the Alabama Forestry Commission; NHLR-registered 2009. No staffing or access 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 Aermotor MC-39 tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1949
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
575 ft (175 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Bibb County, Alabama
Coordinates
33.06662, −87.14075
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-bibb

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 3.3 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. 1949 BuiltNHLR build year; described as one of the newer lookouts in AlabamaSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1949 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 23, 2009 as US 809, AL 10; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Bibb Lookout Tower stands in Bibb County, Alabama, and the Alabama Forestry Commission is listed as its administrator.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower was built in 1949 and places it among the state's more recent lookouts.1

Its design is a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 A December 2025 opinion column by Thomas Kaufmann, the same name as the tower's Register nominator, says the MC-39 was the steel model found most often in the state.3

The Register accepted the tower on June 23, 2009, as US 809, AL 10. The Register lists the site elevation as 575 feet.1

The sources read say nothing about who staffed the tower, what fires it watched, or what condition it is in today. They do not say whether the public can visit or climb it, so anyone planning a visit should check with the Alabama Forestry Commission first.

  1. Bibb Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/bibb-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bibb, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bibb.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Thomas Kaufmann, "Keeping Alabama's historic lookout towers," 1819 News, 12.28.25, https://1819news.com/news/item/thomas-kaufmann-keeping-alabamas-historic-lookout-towers (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bibb 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, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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

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