Fire lookout · Bradley County, Arkansas
Gravel Ridge Lookout Tower
Also known as Bucksnort (AFC 4 - 1)
100-foot Aermotor MC-39 on an active Arkansas Forestry site in Bradley County; a 1952 survey describes a steel structure about 110 ft high at the Bucksnort station.
- 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. Register calls it an active Arkansas Forestry site; the sources read state no public visiting rule
- 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
- 110 ft (33.5 m)
- Elevation
- 186 ft (57 m)
- Agency
- Arkansas Forestry Commission
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Bradley County, Arkansas
- Coordinates
- 33.41848, −92.21768
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ar-gravel-ridge
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 3.2 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
- 1952 Event1952 survey description of Bucksnort (AFC 4-1): four-legged steel structure with 6 by 6 foot cabin, about 110 feet high to roof apex; not a build dateSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1952 and 2023
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 11, 2023 as US 1727, AR 19Source: 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 Gravel Ridge Lookout Tower stands in Bradley County, Arkansas, on a site the Arkansas Forestry Commission uses.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 100-foot Aermotor MC-39 and says its lower-level stairs have been removed.1 The Register gives no build date.1
A 1952 survey record describes a station called Bucksnort (AFC 4-1). It describes a four-legged steel structure supporting a 6-by-6-foot cabin, about 110 feet high to the roof apex.2 Neither source names the other, so the match rests on the shared Forestry Commission and Bradley County links.1,2 The Register gives coordinates, but the Bucksnort record places its station only by reference to Hermitage and State Highway 15, so the sources read do not confirm the match by position.1,2 The two height figures also differ, and no source explains why.1,2
The sources read name no staff and no fires for this tower. According to the encyclopedia, Arkansas watchmen frequently lived in solitude at or near their towers and spent daytime hours watching for smoke.3
The Register records a site visit on January 22, 2022, and describes the tower as being on an active Arkansas Forestry site.1 It was registered on April 11, 2023.1 Because it sits on an active state forestry site, access is not established. Ask the Arkansas Forestry Commission before going, and do not climb the tower.
- Gravel Ridge Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/gravel-ridge-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Bucksnort (AFC 4 - 1), Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/bucksnort1.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, height, 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, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1727 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookouts (Encyclopedia of Arkansas (encyclopediaofarkansas.net)) (opens another site)
- Bucksnort (AFC 4 - 1) (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.