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Fire lookout · Choctaw County, Alabama

Scott Mountain Tower

Choctaw County lookout completed in 1949 as a 120-foot Aermotor MC-39; the NHLR says it is still used on very high fire danger days.

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 towerAermotor MC-39 model, 120 ft tallThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1949
Height
120 ft (36.6 m)
Elevation
504 ft (154 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Choctaw County, Alabama
Coordinates
32.12375, −88.35799
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-scott-mountain

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. 1949 BuiltNHLR says the tower was completed in 1949; height 120 ft converted to metresSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1949 and 2010
  3. 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 10, 2010Source: 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.

Scott Mountain Tower stands in Choctaw County, Alabama, and the Alabama Forestry Commission administers it.1,2

The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower was completed in 1949 and describes it as a 120-foot Aermotor MC-39.1 A 1819 News profile of Thomas Kaufmann's lookout work, which covers Alabama's towers in general, says the MC-39 was the steel tower model most often seen in the state's forests.3 The register entry was filed on January 10, 2010, and it lists the site's elevation at 504 feet, or 154 meters.1

According to the register, the tower still sees use when fire danger is very high.1 I found no source that describes its staffing, its cab, or its history between 1949 and today. The Forest Lookouts page for the tower carries only a heading that names Choctaw County and the Alabama Forestry Commission.2

No source I read gives public access, so treat the tower as a working fire-watch structure. Ask the Alabama Forestry Commission before going near it rather than climbing it on your own.1,2

  1. Scott Mountain Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/scott-mountain-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Scott Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/scott-mountain.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 Scott Mountain Tower
Photo: 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, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: type, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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.