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Fire lookout · Choctaw County, Alabama

Butler Mountain Tower

Choctaw County's 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 lookout, dedicated August 1948 under a new forest-protection program and still used on high fire days, per the register.

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 towerAermotor MC-39 tower with a 7x7 ft metal cab; OpenStreetMap tags tower:construction as latticeThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1948
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
428 ft (131 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Choctaw County, Alabama
Coordinates
32.03100, −88.27072
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-butler-mountain

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. 1948 BuiltNHLR says it was constructed in 1948; the Forest Lookouts page dates the dedication to August 5, 1948Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1948 EventDedicated August 5, 1948 as the county's first symbol of an expanded forest protection program made possible by the Forest Products Severance Tax Act (Dothan Eagle, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1948 and 2010
  4. 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 10, 2010 as US 864; NHLR gives state number AL 42, Jackson's Ramblings gives AL 43Sources: nhlr.org, jacksonsramblings.com
  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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Butler Mountain Tower sits in Choctaw County, Alabama, at an elevation the register gives as 428 feet (130 m).1 The National Historic Lookout Register gives 1948 as the year the tower was built.1 A newspaper report quoted on the Forest Lookouts site, credited to The Dothan Eagle, dates its dedication to August 5, 1948.2

According to the paper, the tower was the county's first landmark of a larger drive to protect its forests, one the Forest Products Severance Tax Act had enabled.2 Around 250 people, including farmers, business owners and their families, listened to speeches while seated on rough wooden benches.2 The register describes a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1 The blog Jackson's Ramblings gives the same tower and cab measurements.3 OpenStreetMap tags the tower's construction as lattice.4

The register lists the Alabama Forestry Commission as administrator and gives a registration date of January 10, 2010, under the number US 864 and state number AL 42.1 Jackson's Ramblings gives the state number as AL 43, so the two sources disagree on that one detail.3

The register says the tower remains in use on high fire days.1 The sources read for this story do not say how it is staffed, whether the cab is open to visitors, or what condition it is in now. The register does not date its description, so that note may be out of date.1 Anyone planning a visit should check with the Alabama Forestry Commission first.

  1. Butler Mountain Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/butler-mountain-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Butler Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/butler-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Butler Mountain Tower, Jackson's Ramblings, https://jacksonsramblings.com/butler-mountain-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Butler Mountain Lookout Tower, OpenStreetMap node 358996985, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/358996985 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Butler Mountain 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, 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: type, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.