Fire lookout · Drew County, Arkansas
Cominto Lookout Tower
100-foot Aermotor MC-39 in Drew County, Arkansas; the Register lists it as privately owned, and a 1939 survey describes a fire tower at the site.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor MC-39The design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 189 ft (58 m)
- Agency
- Privately Owned
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Drew County, Arkansas
- Coordinates
- 33.54071, −91.59636
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ar-cominto
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 2.9 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
- 1939 Event1939 Coast and Geodetic Survey description mentions a fire tower and ranger buildings at the site; not a build dateSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1939 and 2023
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 3, 2023 as US 1750, AR 25Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Cominto Lookout Tower stands in Drew County, Arkansas,1 about 1.5 miles east of Cominto.2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 tower.1 The Register gives no build date, and the sources read do not name a builder.1
The earliest date in these sources is 1939. A Coast and Geodetic Survey description from that year places the site on property the state leased for fire tower use.2 It mentions a fence around the fire tower and ranger buildings.2 The survey refers to Fire Tower No. 5, Unit No. 1, of the Arkansas State Forestry Commission.2 The record shows a tower there by 1939, but it does not say whether that is the structure standing today.2
The sources read name no watchman and no fire this tower handled. According to the encyclopedia, Arkansas watchmen frequently lived in solitude at or near their towers and spent daytime hours watching for smoke.3
The sources disagree about ownership. The Register lists the tower as privately owned, with the Arkansas Forestry Commission as a cooperator, and it was registered on August 3, 2023.1 The 1939 survey, reproduced on the Central Lookouts page, ties the site to the state forestry commission.2 Nothing read says when or how the ownership changed.1,2
The Register's visit note is dated January 24, 2021.1 It does not say whether the public may visit. Because the tower is privately owned, ask the owner before going near it, and do not climb it.
- Cominto Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/cominto-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Cominto, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/cominto.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Forest Fire Lookouts, Encyclopedia of Arkansas (encyclopediaofarkansas.net), https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Forest-Fire-Lookouts-7905 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: type, ownership, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1750 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookouts (Encyclopedia of Arkansas (encyclopediaofarkansas.net)) (opens another site)
- Cominto (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.