FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Newton County, Arkansas

Buffalo Tower

Ozark National Forest lookout in Newton County, Arkansas; Register gives a 1935 build, active until 1987, registered 2006. Present condition and access not confirmed.

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 tower100-foot Aermotor tower with a metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
2,543 ft (775 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Newton County, Arkansas
Coordinates
35.86395, −93.49298
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ar-buffalo-2

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 3.1 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. 1935 BuiltRegister gives 1935 as the build year; constructed by the U.S. Forest Service in the mid-1930sSources: nhlr.org, encyclopediaofarkansas.net
  2. No record between 1935 and 1971
  3. 1971 EventSurvey station described at the center base of a lookout tower about 100 feet high; the two sources name different authors for the descriptionSources: centraluslookouts.weebly.com, ngs.noaa.gov
  4. No record between 1971 and 1987
  5. 1987 Last staffedRegister says the tower remained active until 1987; what that activity involved is not statedSource: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1987 and 2006
  7. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 27, 2006 as US 672, AR 9; nominated by Michael A. PfeifferSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

The Register places Buffalo Tower in the Ozark National Forest in Newton County, Arkansas, and lists the U.S. Forest Service as its administrator.1,2 The Register says the Forest Service built it in the mid-1930s and gives 1935 as the build year.1 An Encyclopedia of Arkansas photo caption repeats that date but credits the Register, so it does not count as separate confirmation.3

The Register describes a 100-foot Aermotor tower with a metal cab.1,2 A 1971 survey station description places a survey mark at the center base of a lookout tower about 100 feet high.2,4 The two sources disagree on who wrote that 1971 description: the Forest Lookouts page credits the Forest Service, while the NOAA datasheet credits the National Geodetic Survey.2,4

The Register says the tower remained active until 1987.1 It does not say what that activity involved, and we found no record of who staffed the tower or what fires it watched.

The Register entry is dated July 27, 2006, with Michael A. Pfeiffer as nominator, under the number US 672, AR 9.1

The sources read say nothing about what became of the tower after 1987. The Register's description uses the present tense and places the tower on the Bayou/Buffalo Ranger District.1 We could not confirm its condition today or whether the public may climb it, so anyone planning a visit should check with the Forest Service first.

  1. Buffalo Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/buffalo-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Buffalo, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/buffalo.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Buffalo Tower Lookout, Encyclopedia of Arkansas (encyclopediaofarkansas.net), https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/bee-mountain-lookout-10702/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Station FG1821, National Geodetic Survey data sheet (ngs.noaa.gov), https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=FG1821 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Buffalo Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Buffalo 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, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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 -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links centraluslookouts.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: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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