Fire lookout · Lafayette County, Florida
Cooks Hammock Fire Tower
Aermotor steel tower in Lafayette County, Florida, administered by FDACS; a July 2026 report says it is preparing to leave the community. No build date found.
- 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.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower120-foot Aermotor tower with standard cabThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 120 ft (36.6 m)
- Elevation
- 56 ft (17 m)
- Agency
- Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Lafayette County, Florida
- Coordinates
- 29.92778, −83.27889
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-fl-cooks-hammock
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 2.8 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
- 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2016 as US 1084, FL 11; nominated by Robert Spear.Source: nhlr.org
- 2026 EventRiverbend News, July 7, 2026: the tower is preparing to leave the community. Destination and timing are not in the excerpt.Source: newsbreak.com
- 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 Cooks Hammock Fire Tower stands in Lafayette County, Florida.1 The register describes it as a 120-foot Aermotor tower with a standard cab.1 The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services administers it.1 The register gives no build year, staffing history or notable fire for the tower.1
A July 2026 Riverbend News report says the steel tower has kept watch over Lafayette County's woods for more than sixty years.2 The register says the forest has matured enough to reduce the tower's view.1
The same report says the tower is getting ready to move out of the community.2 The excerpt I could read does not say where it is going, who is moving it, or when, so any details of the move remain unconfirmed.2
The register lists no visiting or access information for the tower.1 Check with the state, which administers the tower, before you go.1
- Cooks Hammock Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/fl/cooks-hammock-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Lafayette County to say goodbye to historic Cooks Hammock Fire Tower, Riverbend News via NewsBreak, https://www.newsbreak.com/news/4757300990649-lafayette-county-to-say-goodbye-to-historic-cooks-hammock-fire-tower (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, dates, photos, 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 1084 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Lafayette County to say goodbye to historic Cooks Hammock Fire Tower (Riverbend News via NewsBreak (Hailey Waldo)) (opens another site)
- Cooks Hammock (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.