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Fire lookout · Cleburne County, Alabama

Bunker Fire Lookout Tower

Stone observation tower on Cheaha Mountain in Cheaha State Park, Alabama, built by the CCC in 1934 and administered by ADCNR; NHLR-registered 2009. Public, climbable, with an entrance fee.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Inside Cheaha State Park, which charges an entrance fee (marker). Visitors can climb the stairway inside to the observation deck (Encyclopedia of Alabama).

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
On the summit of Cheaha Mountain; the marker says it can be reached from Alabama Route 281. Check the park for current hours and closures.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerRubble stone observation tower; about 10-foot cab on a 40-foot native stone shaft (Register); walls two feet thick (marker)
Built of
Stone
Built
1934
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
2,379 ft (725 m)
Agency
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Land
State land
Location
Cleburne County, Alabama
Coordinates
33.48556, −85.80917
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-bunker

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 3.2 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. 1933 EventConstruction started 1933 (Wikipedia infobox)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1934 BuiltRegister build year; Wikipedia says completed 1934 by the CCC; Register text says CCC built it 1934-35Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  3. 1936 EventDedicated to the park April 4, 1936 (historical marker)Source: hmdb.org
  4. No record between 1936 and 1989
  5. 1989 EventAdded to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage December 15, 1989Source: en.wikipedia.org
  6. No record between 1989 and 2009
  7. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 15, 2009 as US 758, AL 5; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Bunker Tower stands on the summit of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama, inside Cheaha State Park in Cleburne County.1 The National Historic Lookout Register lists it as the Bunker Fire Lookout Tower and says the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources administers it.2

The Civilian Conservation Corps built it from local stone in the 1930s, and the sources give slightly different dates.2,1 The Register lists 1934 as the build year, while its description says the CCC constructed it in 1934 to 1935 using a design from the National Park Service.2 Wikipedia says construction began in 1933 and that the tower was completed in 1934.1 A historical marker says the tower was dedicated to the park on April 4, 1936.3

The Register's description places the tower atop the park lodge. Wikipedia instead says park offices and a gift shop once filled wings on either side of the tower, so the two accounts do not match on the layout.2,1

The marker gives the tower's height as about 50 feet, with walls two feet thick.3 The Register describes a cab about 10 feet square on a 40-foot stone shaft.2

The marker says the Talladega National Forest occasionally uses the tower to watch for smoke.3 I did not find named lookouts or a list of fires in the sources I read.

Wikipedia notes that the tower was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on December 15, 1989.1 The marker says the tower houses the park's museums.3

An America's State Parks guide, updated in October 2026, calls the tower the park's most iconic structure and says it has survived 90 years of storms.4 The Encyclopedia of Alabama says people can take the stairway inside up to a viewing deck at the top.5 The marker says the park charges an entrance fee and that the tower is reached from Alabama Route 281.3 Check the park for current hours and any closures before you go.

  1. Bunker Tower, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunker_Tower (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bunker Fire Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/bunker-fire-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. CCC Bunker Observation Tower, historical marker, Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=175327 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cheaha State Park, America's State Parks, https://www.americasstateparks.org/state-park/cheaha/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Cheaha State Park, Encyclopedia of Alabama, https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/cheaha-state-park/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bunker Fire Lookout 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, access, visiting details, 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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