FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tallapoosa County, Alabama

Smith Mountain Fire Lookout Tower

Also known as Jerry W. Bynum Fire Lookout Tower

Alabama Power's first of six planned fire towers above Lake Martin: opened 1939, closed 1980, restored by CRATA and open to the public since 2012.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Restored and opened to the public in June 2012; CRATA runs the tower and trails. The sources read do not say whether the cab is open to climbers.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Site just off Youngs Ferry Road outside Dadeville; steep 0.4-mile climb from the parking lot to the tower base; Walker Bynum tower trail total length 1.0 mile.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40 prefabricated galvanized steel tower with a small cab; CCC crew built a ranger station and outbuildings at its baseThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
82 ft (25.0 m)
Elevation
621 ft (189 m)
Agency
CRATA (title since 2010); NHLR still lists Alabama Power Company
Land
Unknown
Location
Tallapoosa County, Alabama
Coordinates
32.80985, −85.83829
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-smith-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 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

  1. 1939 BuiltNHLR gives 1939 as the build year but its description says the WPA built it in 1938; CRATA credits Alabama Power Company and gives April 10, 1939 as the official openingSources: nhlr.org, crata.org
  2. 1939 First staffedSmith Mountain was the first of six towers in the network and the district office of the Alabama Division of ForestrySource: crata.org
  3. No record between 1939 and 1980
  4. 1980 ClosedAlabama Forestry Service closed the tower (CRATA); Weebly dates decommissioning to 1981Sources: crata.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1980 Last staffedClosure year; the sources do not give a date for the last watchSource: crata.org
  6. 1981 ClosedDecommissioning as dated by Weebly; conflicts with CRATA's 1980Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1981 and 2009
  8. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 22, 2009 as US 776, AL 9Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2010 EventCRATA obtained title to the site and towerSource: crata.org
  10. 2012 RestoredRestoration completed and tower opened to the public in June 2012 (Weebly); CRATA says the tower has been restoredSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, crata.org
  11. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Smith Mountain Fire Lookout Tower stands on the highest point along the shore of Lake Martin, just outside Dadeville in Tallapoosa County, Alabama.1,2,3 The tower grew out of a problem with the reservoir. Alabama Power Company worried that silt could diminish the reservoir's capacity, so it helped plant millions of trees around the shoreline.4 The company then pushed hard for fire protection, and this tower was the first of six planned for a detection network.4

Sources disagree on who built it and when. The National Historic Lookout Register gives 1939 as the build year, but its description says the WPA constructed the tower in 1938, and it lists the structure at 82 feet.1 The CRATA history credits Alabama Power Company with the construction, says boys from the Dadeville CCC camp built the ranger station and other buildings, puts the overall height of its LS-40 tower at about 90 feet, and gives April 10, 1939 as the official opening.4 A Dadeville Record item from April 1939, quoted by a lookout-history site, describes a Kiwanis meeting held at the mountain upon the tower's dedication.3

The mountain also housed the district office of the state's forestry division, and the site stayed busy for about four decades.4 Staff were formally called watchmen, a label CRATA says is not really accurate, since at least two women are known to have manned the tower.4 Other towers and fire crews were reached over a private phone system that used a hand crank.4

Patrols from the air and better phone service in rural areas reduced the need for towers as the main way to spot fires.4 The Alabama Forestry Service shut the tower in 1980, and it was later returned to Alabama Power Company along with a ten-acre site.4 A lookout-history site dates the decommissioning to 1981 instead.3 The grounds turned into a dump, and the tower decayed into a dangerous state.4

CRATA took ownership of the site and tower in 2010.4 The tower was being rebuilt in October 2011, and it opened to the public in June 2012.3 The National Historic Lookout Register still lists Alabama Power Company as the administrator, which does not match CRATA's account.1,4

Today the tower and its trails draw visitors.2,4 The site sits just off Youngs Ferry Road outside Dadeville.2 Visitors face a steep 0.4-mile walk from the parking lot to the base of the tower.2 Whether the cab itself is open to visitors is not settled by these sources, so check with CRATA before planning a climb.

  1. Smith Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/smith-mountain-fire-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Smith Mountain Trails and the Jerry W. Bynum Fire Lookout Tower, CRATA, https://crata.org/smith-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Smith Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/smith-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Smith Mountain Fire Tower, Harold Banks, CRATA, https://crata.org/smith-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Smith Mountain Fire Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
My 2 year old and I hiked the 1/2 mile up to it. We oth loved the veiw of Lake Martin.
My 2 year old and I hiked the 1/2 mile up to it. We oth loved the veiw of Lake MartinPhoto: 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: type, access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.