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Fire lookout · Madison County, Arkansas

Forum Lookout Tower

50-foot Aermotor lookout in Madison County, Arkansas; the Register says it was moved to its present site in the late 1960s or early 1970s and registered it in 2022.

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 tower50-foot Aermotor with a diagonal staircaseThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
1,639 ft (500 m)
Agency
AGFC
Land
Unknown
Location
Madison County, Arkansas
Coordinates
36.22986, −93.72043
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ar-forum

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. 1940 Event1940 Madison County Journal item, quoted on the NHLR page, describes a lookout six miles south of Huntsville; the Register does not link it to this towerSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1940 and 1971
  3. 1971 MovedRegister says moved to current site in the late 1960s or early 1970s; year 1971 is the earliest record at the present site, not the move dateSources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1971 and 2022
  5. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 14, 2022 as US 1692, AR 11Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 Forum Lookout Tower stands on the McIlroy State Game Management Area in Madison County, Arkansas, according to the National Historic Lookout Register.1 The Register describes a 50-foot Aermotor with a diagonal staircase, six landings and seven flights.1 It gives the build date as unknown.1

The Register also quotes a 1940 item from the Madison County Journal in Huntsville.1 The item reports a forest fire lookout, six miles to the south of Huntsville, that was complete apart from its telephone installation, and a second Madison County tower on Swain Mountain that was nearing completion.1 The Register does not say the 1940 tower is this one, and no second source for the Swain Mountain tower turned up in the sources read.

The Register says this is not the tower's original site. It says the tower was moved to its present site in the late 1960s or early 1970s.1 A 1971 federal survey note already describes a lookout tower erected over the station mark at that spot, which fits a move in those years.2 The same note places the station about 10 miles north of Huntsville,2 which does not match the 1940 item's six miles south. It also describes the land as owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while the Register now lists a state game management area administered by AGFC.1,2

The sources read name no staff and no fires for this tower.

The Register dates its site visit to April 24, 2022, and the tower was registered on August 14, 2022.1 It also notes a television appearance, in the third season of HBO's True Detective.1 The sources do not state public access. Since the site is a state game management area, check with AGFC before visiting, and do not climb the tower.

  1. Forum Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/forum-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Forum, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/forum.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Forum Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Forum Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Forum Lookout 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, 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 -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: type, 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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.