Fire lookout · Colbert County, Alabama
Mountain Mills Lookout Tower
CCC-era 100-foot tower near Barton in Colbert County, AL, completed 1942; NHLR-registered 2009. No staffing or current access source 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 International Derrick tower with a 7-by-7-foot cabThe design: IDECO
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1942
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 946 ft (288 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Colbert County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 34.71731, −87.91170
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-mountain-mills
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
- 1942 BuiltCompleted in 1942; a July 1942 Alabama Journal item reports completion, and the Register says built in 1942 as the last CCC-completed tower in AlabamaSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1942 and 2009
- 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 6, 2009 as US 846, AL 24, 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 places the Mountain Mills Lookout Tower in Colbert County, Alabama, and lists the Alabama Forestry Commission as its administrator.1 The Register dates it to 1942 and describes a 100-foot tower of the International Derrick type, whose cab is 7 by 7 feet.1 It describes the tower as the last fire tower the Civilian Conservation Corps completed in Alabama.1
A July 1942 item from the Alabama Journal announced that the tower near Barton was complete, called it a 100-foot steel tower, and said four more were under construction.2 The excerpt credits the state conservation department's forestry division and does not mention the CCC.2 The Encyclopedia of Alabama says the CCC had built 61 lookout towers in the state by 1942, which puts the Mountain Mills tower within a wider program.3
We found no record of who staffed the tower or how it was used over the years. The Register records its registration on December 6, 2009, on a nomination by Thomas Kaufmann.1 It does not say whether the public may visit, so check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before going to the site.1
- Mountain Mills Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/mountain-mills-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Mountain Mills, Forest Lookouts (quoting the Alabama Journal, July 1, 1942), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/mountain-mills.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama, Encyclopedia of Alabama, https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/civilian-conservation-corps-in-alabama/ (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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: height, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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 846 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama (Encyclopedia of Alabama) (opens another site)
- Mountain Mills (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.