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Fire lookout · Morgan County, Alabama

Union Hill Lookout Tower

Also known as Union Hill (Brindley Mountain)

Morgan County's first fire tower, an 80-foot steel Aermotor on Union Hill, went up in 1964 and was sold to a private owner in 2019; access is by permission.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. Access is now only by permission of the landowner, according to the register.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-39 steel tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Steel
Built
1964
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
1,274 ft (388 m)
Agency
Private owner since 2019; earlier Alabama Forestry Commission
Land
State land
Location
Morgan County, Alabama
Coordinates
34.46447, −86.64214
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-al-union-hill

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. 1964 BuiltErected in 1964; 1964 press calls it Morgan County's first and only fire towerSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1964 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 8, 2009 as US 848, AL 26Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2019 EventTower and site sold or deeded to a private owner; access now by permissionSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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.

The Union Hill Lookout Tower was erected in 1964 on a high hill in eastern Morgan County, Alabama.1,2 A 1964 newspaper report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, called it the county's first and only fire tower and said it was made of steel.2 The register describes an Aermotor MC-39 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, one of a limited number of 80-foot towers in Alabama.1

Reports from spring 1964 tracked its progress. In March it was nearing completion; by April it was in operation, though not quite finished.2 A notice from July 1964 said the new tower had not yet been manned, because there were not enough funds or people to staff it.2 The sources read do not record any fire it spotted, or whether it was staffed in later years.

The register says the tower and its surrounding buildings were sold to a private owner in 2019, and that access now requires the landowner's permission.1 The Forest Lookouts page gives August 2019 as the month the site was deeded to private ownership, and it lists the Alabama Forestry Commission as the earlier administrator.2

The register's photographs were taken in November 2021, and the sources do not say what condition the tower is in now.1 Because the owner controls access, anyone curious about it should ask the landowner first.1

  1. Union Hill Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/al/union-hill-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Union Hill (Brindley Mountain), Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/union-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Union Hill Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
November 27, 2021
November 27, 2021 (2021)Photo: Jason Johns, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
November 27, 2021
November 27, 2021 (2021)Photo: Jason Johns, 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, 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: height, 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, 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.