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Fire lookout · Levy County, Florida

Cedar Key (Suwannee) Fire Tower

Also known as Cedar Key

Levy County tower registered in 2016: an 80 ft Aermotor LS-40 still standing in good shape. Build date not found; a nearby USGS well carries the name Cedar Key Tower.

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 towerAermotor LS-40, 80 ftThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
20 ft (6 m)
Agency
Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
Land
Unknown
Location
Levy County, Florida
Coordinates
29.23794, −82.93589
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-fl-cedar-key-suwannee

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. 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2016 as US 1090, FL 18; nominated by Robert SpearSource: nhlr.org
  2. 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 Cedar Key (Suwannee) Fire Tower stands in Levy County, Florida.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 that still stands in good condition.1 The register does not explain the "Suwannee" part of the name.1

The sources reviewed do not say when the tower was built, who erected it, or what it was used for, and no construction, staffing or fire record turned up.1,2 One clue comes from a U.S. Geological Survey groundwater well record. That record is named "DOF-CEDAR KEY TOWER (ROSEWOOD TOWER)" and sits about 57 meters from the register's coordinates (our calculation), so it may mark the same site.3,1 The initials DOF are not explained, and the well record gives no tower height, construction date or design, so the link is an inference rather than a confirmed fact.3

The register lists the tower on July 24, 2016, as US 1090, FL 18, with Robert Spear as nominator.1 It gives the site's elevation as 20 feet and names the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as the agency that administers the tower.1

The register does not describe public access, visiting rules or climbing rules for the tower.1 Anyone planning a visit should check with that agency first, and should not climb the tower without its permission.1

  1. Cedar Key (Suwannee) Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/fl/cedar-key-suwannee-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cedar Key - Forest Lookouts, Eastern U.S. Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/cedar-key.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. DOF-CEDAR KEY TOWER (ROSEWOOD TOWER), USGS Water Data for the Nation, https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-291414082560985/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cedar Key (Suwannee) Fire Tower
Photo: Ed Seifert, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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 -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: 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
  3. 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

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