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Fire lookout · Calhoun County, Alabama

Chimney Peak Fire Lookout Tower

Calhoun County, AL tower on Chimney Peak; register dates it to 1935, but 1947-49 Anniston Star reports show it erected 1948-49; overlook gated and hours-limited since 2024.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Gate installed; overlook open daily 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.; overnight access limited from Feb. 12, 2024 (Jacksonville State University). Sources do not say whether the cab is open to climbing.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100' International Derrick tower with metal 7'x7' cab (NHLR); a 1949 newspaper gives 99 ft 9 in for the steel towerThe design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,689 ft (515 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Calhoun County, Alabama
Coordinates
33.83698, −85.73307
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-chimney-peak

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. 1935 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  2. 1947 EventFive acres donated on Chimney Peak; Anniston Star said a fire tower would be erected thereSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1949 BuiltDedicated September 7, 1949 at Germanic Springs north of Jacksonville; described as a steel tower 99 ft 9 in high, built after about a year of constructionSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1949 and 1974
  5. 1974 AlteredWindows and fire-finding equipment removed after repeated vandalism; Forest Service said the tower was still in useSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1974 and 2009
  7. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 15, 2009 as US 759, AL 6; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 2009 and 2024
  9. 2024 EventGate installed; overnight access limited effective February 12, 2024Source: jsu.edu
  10. 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.

The register places the Chimney Peak Fire Lookout Tower on Choccolocco Mountain in Calhoun County, Alabama, near the Jacksonville State University planetarium.1 It is a 100-foot International Derrick tower with a metal 7-by-7-foot cab.1

The register says the Civilian Conservation Corps built it in the 1930s for the Alabama Forestry Commission, and it dates the tower to 1935.1 Newspaper items reprinted on the Forest Lookouts site tell a later story. In August 1947 a donor gave five acres on Chimney Peak, and the Anniston Star said a fire tower would be erected there.2 By August 1948 the steel had arrived, but erection had been held up by a steel shortage.2 On September 7, 1949, the tower was dedicated at Germanic Springs, north of Jacksonville. The paper described a steel tower 99 feet and 9 inches high, paid for by the State Department of Conservation, the Calhoun County Commission and private citizens of Jacksonville.2

The two accounts cannot both be right about when the tower went up, and we could not settle the question from these sources. We have followed the newspapers for the construction dates and flagged the register's 1935 date for review.

We found no source naming anyone who staffed the lookout or any fire it watched. In October 1974 a reader asked why the tower looked abandoned, with its lines cut and its windows broken out. The Alabama Forest Service replied that the tower was still in use, but that repeated vandalism had forced it to remove equipment, including windows that had not been broken. The service said vandal repairs cost $300 to $1,000 a month, and that limited funds needed for fire control meant less money went to the tower's upkeep.2

The register accepted the tower on January 15, 2009, on the nomination of Thomas Kaufmann, as US 759, AL 6.1 A February 2024 notice from the City of Jacksonville and Jacksonville State University says the two are working together to protect and preserve Chimney Peak.3 The same notice says a gate limits overnight access, the overlook is open to visitors daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., and signs are planned on Mountain Street to tell drivers to turn back after hours.3 We found nothing saying whether the tower's cab is open to climbing, so visitors should treat the tower itself as off limits and enjoy the overlook during posted hours.

  1. Chimney Peak Fire Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/chimney-peak-fire-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Chimney Peak - Forest Lookouts (Anniston Star items reprinted), Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/chimney-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Operating Hours for Chimney Peak, Jacksonville State University, https://www.jsu.edu/news/articles/2024/02/operating-hours-for-chimney-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Chimney Peak 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, 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: type, 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, 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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