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Fire lookout · Chilton County, Alabama

Union Grove Lookout Tower

Chilton County, AL tower built by the Alabama Forestry Commission in 1948 and registered in 2009 as US 817; no staffing history or current condition found.

Status unknown: We do not know yet whether it still stands. The Register gives no current condition, and no recent photo or report was found

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. No public access information found; check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before visiting

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Status unknown sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower100' MC-39 Aermotor tower with 7'x7' cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1948
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
762 ft (232 m)
Agency
Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
Unknown
Location
Chilton County, Alabama
Coordinates
32.98000, −86.70000 (approximate)
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-union-grove

View from the cab

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History

Then and now

  1. 1948 BuiltBuilt by the Alabama Forestry Commission, per the Register's Built field and descriptionSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1948 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 23, 2009 as US 817, AL 18; nominated by Thomas KaufmannSource: nhlr.org
  4. TodayStatus unknownWe do not know whether it still stands.

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.

The Union Grove Lookout Tower is near the town of Jemison in Chilton County, Alabama.1

The Alabama Forestry Commission built it in 1948, according to the National Historic Lookout Register, which describes a 100-foot MC-39 Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 The MC-39 was the most common steel lookout model in Alabama, and forestry crews kept putting up new towers during the war and for a few decades after.2

Thomas Kaufmann, who wrote that essay as a preservationist, is also the person who nominated this tower to the Register.1,2 The Register added the tower on June 23, 2009, under the numbers US 817 and AL 18.1

We found no source that names anyone who staffed the tower or describes a fire it watched.1,2

The Register lists the Alabama Forestry Commission as the administrator, but it does not say whether the tower still stands or what shape it is in.1 We found no recent photo or report and no information about public access, so anyone curious about the site should check with the Alabama Forestry Commission before going near it.1

  1. Union Grove Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/union-grove-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. 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 Union Grove Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • Firefinder research: Status unknown
    • NHLR: Standing

    Research (2026-10-09) gives unknown where the source records give standing. The page shows the researched status; please tell us if it is wrong.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.