FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Escambia County, Alabama

Parker Springs Lookout

A rare live-in, 12x12 cab on a 100-ft Aermotor tower built in 1937 in Alabama's Conecuh National Forest, one of only two of its kind left in the state.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerLive-in 12'x12' hip-roof wooden cab with catwalk on a 100-ft Aermotor steel towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1937
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
302 ft (92 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Escambia County, Alabama
Coordinates
31.04433, −86.80873
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-parker-springs

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 2.8 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. 1937 BuiltPer Jackson's Ramblings lookout surveySource: jacksonsramblings.com
  2. No record between 1937 and 2015
  3. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2015 as US 1076, AL 60, nominated by Al PelhamSource: 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Parker Springs Lookout stands in the Conecuh National Forest, near the Florida state line in Escambia County, Alabama.1,2 It was built in 1937.2 The tower is a 100-foot steel Aermotor structure topped by an unusually large, live-in cab: a 12-by-12-foot hip-roofed room with a catwalk.1

That size and design make Parker Springs rare. It is unique among the southern National Forests' lookouts; only four towers like it survive, and just two of those are in Alabama — Parker Springs and its near neighbor, Open Pond Lookout, a few miles away in the same forest.1,2 Most of Alabama's fire towers are entered from below, with smaller cabs. Parker Springs and Open Pond instead have side entrances and room enough to live in, a layout found on only a few other towers in the far south of the state.2

The tower was nominated to the National Historic Lookout Register by Al Pelham and was registered on June 9, 2015, as US 1076 (Alabama 60).1 Beyond its construction year and its registration, little has surfaced about who staffed Parker Springs, when it last stood fire watch, or whether it has been restored or altered since. No source consulted says whether the tower is currently open to visitors or safe to climb.

Parker Springs is administered by the U.S. Forest Service within the Conecuh National Forest.1,2 Anyone passing nearby should check current Forest Service guidance before approaching it, since nothing in the available record confirms public access.

  1. Parker Springs Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/parker-springs-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Forest Fire Lookouts, Jackson's Ramblings, https://jacksonsramblings.com/forest-fire-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Parker Springs Lookout
Photo: Al Pelham, 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. 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

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