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Fire lookout · Searcy County, Arkansas

Buffalo Lookout Tower

Searcy County, AR 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 privately owned by Tom Astor, NHLR-registered 2023 after a 2022 site visit; no build history. Not the Newton County Buffalo Tower.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Register lists the tower as privately owned; no public access described

Status unknown: We do not know yet whether it still stands. Register gives no present condition; the only dated evidence is a site visit on March 20, 2022

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

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

Facts

Status
Status unknown sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor LS-40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
946 ft (288 m)
Agency
Privately owned (Tom Astor, per register)
Land
Unknown
Location
Searcy County, Arkansas
Coordinates
35.96683, −92.74669
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ar-buffalo

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 2022 EventSite visit logged 3/20/22 on the register pageSource: nhlr.org
  2. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 10, 2023; nominated by Jason Johns; cooperator Arkansas ForestrySource: nhlr.org
  3. 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 National Historic Lookout Register lists a Buffalo Lookout Tower in Searcy County, Arkansas, as US 1764, AR 26.1 The page describes a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower at an elevation of 946 feet (288 m).1 It gives no build date and does not name a builder.1

Jason Johns nominated the tower, and the register entered it on August 10, 2023.1 The page logs a site visit dated March 20, 2022, and names Arkansas Forestry as a cooperator.1 It says nothing about staffing or the fires the tower watched, and we found no other record of either.1

The register lists the tower as privately owned by Tom Astor.1 It does not describe public access, and we did not find a later report on the tower's condition, so its present state is unknown.1

A note on names: the register also has a Buffalo Lookout Tower in Newton County, Arkansas (US 672, AR 9).2 The Forest Service built that one in the mid-1930s, and it stayed in service until 1987.2 It is a different tower from the one described here, and this story does not cover it.

Please treat the tower as private property. Ask the owner before any visit, and do not climb it without permission.

  1. Buffalo Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/buffalo-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Buffalo Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/buffalo-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Buffalo 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.