Fire lookout · Perry County, Alabama
Joyce Hill Tower
Perry County Aermotor MC-39 tower dated 1949 and registered in 2011; the Alabama Forestry Commission is named as administrator, and no current status was found.
- 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-foot Aermotor MC-39 tower with 7x7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1949
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 436 ft (133 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission (administrator and cooperator, per register)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Perry County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 32.65971, −87.27499
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-joyce-hill
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
- 1949 BuiltBuilt field on the register; the builder is not namedSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1949 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 3, 2011; 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 register dates the Joyce Hill Tower to 1949 and places it on high ground in Perry County.1 It is a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 with a 7-by-7-foot cab, and it stands at an elevation of 436 feet, or 133 meters.1
A 1819 News profile calls the MC-39 the most widespread steel lookout model across Alabama's forests, with the LS-40 next.2
The Alabama Forestry Commission is named as the tower's administrator and as a cooperator.1 Thomas Kaufmann nominated it. The register dates its registration to January 3, 2011, and lists the registry numbers US 898 and AL 56.1
We found no other source on who staffed the tower, whether it watched any fires, or what condition it is in today. The register gives no current status or visit report, so its present state is unknown.
- Joyce Hill Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/joyce-hill-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Thomas Kaufmann keeping Alabama's historic lookout towers, 1819 News, https://1819news.com/news/item/thomas-kaufmann-keeping-alabamas-historic-lookout-towers (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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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
- 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 898 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Thomas Kaufmann keeping Alabama's historic lookout towers (1819 News) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.