Fire lookout · Monroe County, Alabama
Blacksher Lookout Tower
1941 International Derrick fire tower at Uriah, Monroe County, Alabama; begun by CCC Company 1485, finished by the AFC; NHLR-registered 2009.
- 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 towerInternational Derrick tower with 7x7-foot cab, described as one of a limited number of 120-foot fire towersThe design: IDECO
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1941
- Height
- 120 ft (36.6 m)
- Elevation
- 361 ft (110 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Monroe County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 31.32481, −87.56736
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-blacksher
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
- 1941 BuiltStarted by CCC Company 1485 and completed by the Alabama Forestry Commission in 1941Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1941 and 2009
- 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 17, 2009; 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 National Historic Lookout Register places the Blacksher Lookout Tower at Uriah, in Monroe County, Alabama, and says the Alabama Forestry Commission administers it.1 The tower is of the International Derrick type, with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1
The Register says the CCC Company 1485 started the tower and the commission finished it in 1941.1 It also places the tower among a small number of 120-foot fire towers that remain in Alabama.1 The Register gives the elevation as 361 feet (110 metres), records its registration on December 17, 2009, and names Thomas Kaufmann as the nominator.1
The name is a puzzle. Wikipedia places the community of Blacksher in Baldwin County, not Monroe County. It says Blacksher was likely named for Jeptha Blacksher, whose brother James Uriah Blacksher was the namesake of Uriah.2 That ties the two place names to one family, but I found no source that explains why a Monroe County tower carries the Blacksher name.2 This story follows the Register's county, but a reader should check it before relying on it.1,2
I found nothing that says who staffed the tower, what fires it watched, or whether it was ever closed, moved or taken down.1,2 The Register does not say whether the public can see or climb it.1 Anyone planning a visit should ask the Alabama Forestry Commission first, and should not climb the tower without its permission.
- Blacksher Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/blacksher-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Blacksher, Alabama, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksher,_Alabama (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
- 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 853 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Blacksher, Alabama (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.