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Fire lookout · Butler County, Alabama

Longleaf Lookout Tower

1939 Huxford fire tower moved to private land near Georgiana after 2006 AFC surplus; the Spring Hill former site keeps only its stands.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On the owner's property near Georgiana; the register gives no public visiting arrangement.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot International Derrick model Huxford fire tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
323 ft (99 m)
Agency
Jerry Watson, Owner
Land
Unknown
Location
Butler County, Alabama
Coordinates
31.64948, −86.89053 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-longleaf

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 2.9 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. 1939 BuiltNHLR gives 1939 as the build year for the Huxford towerSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 2006
  3. 2006 RemovedDeclared surplus by the Alabama Forestry Commission in 2006; Jerry Watson then purchased, moved and restored itSource: nhlr.org
  4. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered December 18, 2009Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFormer-sites record for the Spring Hill Longleaf Fire Tower Site, registered September 15, 2019Source: firetower.org
  6. 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 Longleaf Lookout Tower stands in Butler County, Alabama, on the property of its owner, Jerry Watson, which the register calls Georgiana.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 100-foot International Derrick model Huxford fire tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, built in 1939.1

The register says the Alabama Forestry Commission declared the tower surplus in 2006. Watson then bought it, moved it and restored it.1 The register lists Watson as the owner and gives a registration date of December 18, 2009.1

A second record complicates the picture. The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register lists a Longleaf Fire Tower Site in Spring Hill, about 0.7 kilometers from the coordinates given for the moved tower.1,2 That entry says only the stands remain there.2 The two records do not say outright that the Spring Hill site is where the tower stood before it moved. That link is my inference from the matching name.

I found no account of who staffed the tower or which fires it watched.

Today the tower stands on private property.1 Neither record says whether the public may visit or climb it, and I found no public visiting arrangement.1,2 Anyone interested should ask the owner before going near the property.

  1. Longleaf Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/longleaf-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Longleaf Fire Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/al/longleaf-fire-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Longleaf Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Longleaf Lookout Tower
Photo: Andrew Zerbe, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 670 m.

    • NHLR: 31.64948, −86.89053
    • FFLOS: 31.65000, −86.88350

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • NHLR: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.