Fire lookout · Pickens County, Alabama
Carrollton Fire Tower
Pickens County, AL tower completed 1948 by the Alabama Forestry Commission (100' Aermotor MC-39); NHLR-registered 2011; current condition not described in sources read.
- 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 tower100' Aermotor MC-39 with 7'x7' cab; a 1955 survey describes a four-legged steel structure with an enclosed top platformThe 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
- 402 ft (123 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Pickens County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 33.27248, −88.11846
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-carrollton
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 3.0 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
- 1948 BuiltCompleted in 1948 as the third lookout in Pickens County (NHLR)Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1948 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 3, 2011 as US 896, AL 54; 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 Carrollton Fire Tower is in Pickens County, Alabama.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was completed in 1948 and was the third lookout in the county.1 The Alabama Forestry Commission administered it.1 It is a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1
A 1955 survey description, reprinted on the Forest Lookouts site, places the tower on the north side of State Highway 70, about 1.5 miles west of Carrollton. It describes a four-legged steel structure about 100 feet high with an enclosed observation platform at the top.2
The register accepted the tower on January 3, 2011, on the nomination of Thomas Kaufmann. It is listed as US 896, AL 54.1 The sources we read do not name anyone who staffed the tower or any fire it watched.
Our sources do not say what condition the tower is in today, and the register entry does not describe public access. We found no report of it being removed, moved or rented. Anyone interested should check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before going to the site, since the access situation is unknown.1,2
- Carrollton Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/carrollton-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Carrollton - Forest Lookouts (1955 survey description reprinted), Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/carrollton.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: type, height, 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 896 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Carrollton (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.