FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Cleburne County, Arkansas

Round Mountain Lookout Tower

Also known as Round Mountain (Heber Sprs)

A privately owned Aermotor tower in Cleburne County, near Heber Springs, registered in 2023; its build date and builder are not known.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned land; the Forest Lookouts page asks readers to respect private property rights.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor tower, apparently an LS-40 modelThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
924 ft (282 m)
Agency
Privately Owned
Land
Unknown
Location
Cleburne County, Arkansas
Coordinates
35.47605, −92.01668
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ar-round-mountain

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 3.4 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. 1990 EventSite and improvements sold into private ownership; the page dates this only to the 1990sSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1990 and 2016
  3. 2016 Condition assessmentNHLR site visit dated 7/8/16Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 11, 2023 as US 1728Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 Round Mountain tower in Cleburne County is also listed as Round Mountain (Heber Springs).1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an Aermotor that appears to be an LS-40 model, and gives the site's elevation as 924 feet (282 m).2

The register gives no build date, and I found no account of who built the tower or when.2 It names the Arkansas Forestry Commission only as a cooperator.2

The register lists the tower as privately owned.2 According to the Forest Lookouts page, the site and its structures passed into private hands in the 1990s.1 The register records a site visit dated July 8, 2016, and the tower was registered in April 2023.2

Because the land is private, I could not confirm whether the public can visit. The Forest Lookouts page also asks visitors to respect the rights of the private owners.1 Please keep off the property and do not climb the tower.

  1. Round Mountain (Heber Sprs), Forest Lookouts (Central US Lookouts), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/round-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Round Mountain Lookout Tower (US 1728), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/round-mountain-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Round Mountain Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Round Mountain Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Round Mountain Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Round Mountain 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, 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.