Fire lookout · DeKalb County, Alabama
DeSoto Falls Tower
Lookout Mountain tower in DeKalb County, AL, relocated and rebuilt at DeSoto Falls in 1952 by the Alabama Forestry Commission; removed around 2010.
- Gone
- Closed
- Verified
Closed
The site is closed to visitors. No tower remains; the site is inside DeSoto State Park, a public recreation area
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed around 2010 according to both registers; no tower remains to climb
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor MC-39 steel tower with 7-by-7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1952
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 1,850 ft (564 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission (administrator per NHLR); site managed by the Alabama Division of State Parks
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- DeKalb County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 34.53916, −85.61208
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-desoto-falls
View from the cab
What the lookout saw from its 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.
This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.
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
- 1952 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
- 1952 MovedRelocated by the Alabama Forestry Commission and reconstructed at the DeSoto Falls site; the register's Built field gives 1952Sources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
- No record between 1952 and 2009
- 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAccepted by NHLR on January 7, 2009; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
- 2010 RemovedRegisters say removed around 2010 ('circa 2010' in the Removed field)Sources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
- 2017 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterAdded to FFLOS on October 6, 2017; nominated by Rob GrantSource: firetower.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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 DeSoto Falls Tower stood on Lookout Mountain in DeKalb County, Alabama, on ground that is now part of DeSoto State Park.1,2 The park is about eight miles northeast of Fort Payne, and it was dedicated as DeSoto State Park in 1939.2
The tower was a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says the Alabama Forestry Commission relocated it and reconstructed it at this site in 1952.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register describes it the same way.3 The register's "Built" field also gives 1952, but neither register says when the tower was first put up or where it stood before it was moved.1,3
The description places the tower near DeSoto Falls, which Wikipedia calls the state's highest waterfall at 104 feet.1,2 The register says the Alabama Division of State Parks managed the site and that the Alabama Forestry Commission administered it.1
We found no source that names anyone who staffed the tower or any fire it watched. For context, a manuscript history of Alabama forestry, submitted in March 1961, says 157 lookout towers made up the state's forest-fire detection system.4
The National Historic Lookout Register accepted the tower on January 7, 2009, and the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register added the site on October 6, 2017.1,3
Both registers date the tower's removal to around 2010, so there is no tower to climb at the site.1,3
DeSoto State Park is a public recreation area with 25 miles of hiking trails, and the falls lie within it.2 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the tower site, so visitors should ask park staff before looking for it.
- DeSoto Falls Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/desoto-falls-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- DeSoto State Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeSoto_State_Park (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- DeSoto Falls Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/al/desoto-falls-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- A History of State Forestry in Alabama, Alabama Department of Conservation, Division of Forestry, https://forestry.alabama.gov/Pages/Management/Forms/History_State_Forestry.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Where sources disagree
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Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- Firefinder research: Gone
- NHLR: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
Research (2026-10-09) gives gone where the source records give standing. The page shows the researched status; please tell us if it is wrong.
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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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
- NHLR register entry US 858 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLOS register entry US 1703 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- DeSoto State Park (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- A History of State Forestry in Alabama (Alabama Department of Conservation, Division of Forestry) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.