FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Winston County, Alabama

Moreland Lookout Tower

1933 CCC-built 100-ft steel Aermotor MC-39 tower in Bankhead National Forest, Winston County; USFS-administered; bottom stairs removed as of 2016.

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
Trail
Bottom set of stairs had been removed by the 2016 registration; check with the Bankhead National Forest before visiting.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot steel Aermotor tower, MC-39 modelThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
884 ft (269 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Winston County, Alabama
Coordinates
34.24221, −87.29268
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-moreland

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 3.3 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. 1933 BuiltBuilt by CCC workers, per the NHLR description and Built fieldSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 2016
  3. 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered November 27, 2016; description records the bottom stairs removed and cab windows missingSource: nhlr.org
  4. 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 Moreland Lookout Tower stands in Winston County, Alabama, inside the Bankhead National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The register lists it as US 1160, AL 72, with a registration date of November 27, 2016.1 The National Geodetic Survey also keeps a station record under the name DOUBLE SPRINGS MORELAND TOWER, which has no descriptive text.2

Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the tower in 1933.1 The register calls it a 100-foot steel Aermotor tower and says it is an MC-39 model.1 The sources I found do not say who staffed it or which fires it watched.

The register's 2016 description says the tower was surrounded by trees and shrubs.1 The lowest flight of stairs was already gone, and none of the cab's windows remained.1 The register also notes that the site is a popular roost for vultures.1

Thomas Kaufmann's 1819 News column says there are probably fewer than 75 historic lookouts still standing in Alabama, and that many are in poor repair, unsafe and illegal to climb.3

Today I found no later report on the tower's condition or on public access. The 2016 register entry says the bottom stairs were already gone, so check with the national forest before any visit and do not try to climb the tower.1

  1. Moreland Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/moreland-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Moreland, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/moreland.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. 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

Photo of Moreland Lookout Tower
Photo: Andrew Zerbe, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Moreland Lookout Tower
Photo: Billy Wayne White, via 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, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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: 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, status, agency, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.