Fire lookout · Sussex County, Delaware
Laurel Tower Site
Sussex County, DE state tower erected 1931, staffed by towermen, used as an AWS unit in wartime, and removed between 2002 and 2006; no source describes the site now.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot steel Aermotor LS-40 with a seven-foot square cabin, upper half enclosed in glassThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1931
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 38 ft (12 m)
- Agency
- Delaware state forestry department (annual reports of the State Forester)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Sussex County, Delaware
- Coordinates
- 38.59222, −75.54250 sources disagree
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-de-laurel
View from the cab
What the lookout saw from its 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.
This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.
Downloads about 3.5 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
- 1931 BuiltErection started July 29, 1931; towers opened for service October 15, 1931. FFLOS also gives 1931.Sources: firelookout.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1933 StaffedTowerman thinned the one-acre site on days his services were not needed in the cabinSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1934 AlteredDark green curtains installed in the Dagsboro, Laurel and Ellendale towers to reduce glareSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1940 AlteredCabin windows replaced with windows of a new designSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1946 EventOperated as an AWS unit during the war, per the FY1946 report. The war-time dates are not given; 1946 is the report year.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1951 AlteredWired for electric power following the radio installation contract; power supplied by Delaware Power and Light CompanySource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1952 AlteredAluminum sliding windows purchased to replace the tower's windowsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1952 and 2002
- 2002 RemovedTurned over to State Police for communications purposes, then removed sometime between 2002 and 2006. The year is the earliest bound of that range, not a confirmed date.Sources: firelookout.org, firetower.org, firelookout.org
- 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 11, 2008 as FFLOS US 72, DE 3Source: firetower.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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 state raised the Laurel tower in 1931 along with the other towers.1 Erection began on July 29, and the tower went into service on October 15 of that year.1 The tower stood on a 45-foot rise north of the Georgetown-Laurel highway, along the Midnight Thicket-Concord road.1 A 1931-32 state report puts it about two and a half miles northeast of Laurel, while a 1934 report says three miles.1 Like the Ellendale tower, it was a steel structure with a seven-foot square cabin, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40.2,1
The site, a one-acre woodlot, was thinned from time to time by the towerman on days when the cabin did not need him.1 The towers were staffed.3 In 1934 dark green curtains went up in the cabins to cut glare, which a report described as tiring to the towermen's eyes.3
The 1946 state report says the Laurel tower served as an AWS unit during the war.3 The cabin windows were replaced with a new design in 1940, and in 1952 the state bought aluminum sliding windows for the tower.1 A 1951 report says the power came from the Delaware Power and Light Company.3
The association says the State Police took the tower over for communications, and that it was removed at some point between 2002 and 2006.2,4,5 The association's page carries a photograph of the tower captioned January 2002.2
No source describes what remains at the site now.
- Laurel, Forest Lookouts (fan site transcribing state forester annual reports), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/laurel.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Laurel, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/de/laurel/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Misc. and General Info., Forest Lookouts (fan site transcribing state forester annual reports), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/misc.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Laurel Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/de/laurel-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Delaware Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/de/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
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 the location by 510 m.
- FFLA: 38.59222, −75.54250
- FFLOS: 38.58867, −75.53883
They share a register number.
The map uses the position from FFLA.
Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: name, county, elevation, register numbers, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: location, type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: register numbers Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: height, links easternuslookouts.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, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 72 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Laurel (Forest Fire Lookout Association) (opens another site)
- Misc. and General Info. (Forest Lookouts (fan site transcribing state forester annual reports)) (opens another site)
- Delaware Lookouts (Forest Fire Lookout Association) (opens another site)
- FFLA Delaware lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Laurel (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.