Fire lookout · Baldwin County, Alabama
Simerly Fire Tower
1963 Aermotor MC-39 tower on Alabama Highway 59 south of Stapleton, Baldwin County, administered by the Alabama Forestry Commission; NHLR-registered 2009.
- 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 Aermotor MC-39 tower that replaced a 91-foot creosote lookoutThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1963
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 202 ft (62 m)
- Agency
- Alabama Forestry Commission
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Baldwin County, Alabama
- Coordinates
- 30.70226, −87.77499
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-al-simerly
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 3.0 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
- 1963 BuiltBuilt 1963 per the NHLR detail fields and Jackson's Ramblings; the NHLR description says built after 1942 and that it replaced a 91-foot creosote lookoutSources: nhlr.org, jacksonsramblings.com
- No record between 1963 and 2009
- 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 12, 2009 as US 851, AL 29 (the blog gives AL 30)Sources: nhlr.org, jacksonsramblings.com
- 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Simerly Fire Tower stands on Alabama Highway 59, south of Stapleton, in Baldwin County.1,2 The Alabama Forestry Commission is listed as its administrator.1,3
The tower was built in 1963, according to both the National Historic Lookout Register and a local blog.1,2 The Register says the 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 replaced an older 91-foot creosote lookout, and it dates the new tower to after 1942.1 The sources read say nothing about who staffed the tower or which fires it watched.
The Register lists the tower as US 851, AL 29, with a registration date of December 12, 2009.1 The blog gives the Alabama number as AL 30, so the two sources disagree on that one figure.2
The Register describes the tower as a landmark by the road for people traveling to the Alabama beaches.1 The blog says thousands of people go past it each day on trips to and from the beaches, and it calls Simerly the southernmost tower in Alabama.2 None of the three sources says whether the tower has been closed, moved or restored, or whether the public may visit or climb it. Check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before going.
- Simerly Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/simerly-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Simerly Fire Tower, Jackson's Ramblings, https://jacksonsramblings.com/simerly-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Simerly, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/simerly.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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: 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 851 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Simerly Fire Tower (Jackson's Ramblings (jacksonsramblings.com)) (opens another site)
- Simerly (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 358997142 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.