Fire lookout · Okeechobee County, Florida
Okeechobee Fire Tower
100-foot Aermotor LS-40 fire tower in Okeechobee County, Florida; NHLR-registered 2016; cab rehabilitated 2009. A WPTV report describes drought-season ranger watches from the tower.
- 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
- Staffed only in emergencies (as of undated)
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with 15 landingsThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 35 ft (11 m)
- Agency
- Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Okeechobee County, Florida
- Coordinates
- 27.29041, −80.82753
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-fl-okeechobee
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 2.9 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
- 2009 RestoredObservation cab rehabilitatedSource: nhlr.org
- 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2016 as US 1066, FL 13; nominated by Robert SpearSource: 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 Okeechobee Fire Tower stands in Okeechobee County, Florida.1 The National Historic Lookout Register's entry gives it as a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 with 15 landings, and records a 2009 rehabilitation of the viewing cab.1 The Register does not give a build date, and I found none in the other sources I read.
A WPTV news report, undated in the copy I read, says that for half a century the county's fire watch tower has helped firefighters spot brush fires.2 It describes a climb of 81 steps and nine flights of stairs, and a view that reaches 30 miles.2 It also describes a Florida Forest Service ranger, Robert Smith, who spends up to eight hours in the tower during severe drought.2 The report does not say how the tower is staffed outside severe drought.2 At the top, a fire finder lets firefighters pin down a fire's exact location.2
The Register names the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as administrator, while the report refers to the Florida Forest Service.1,2 The Register recorded the tower on July 24, 2016, as US 1066, FL 13, with Robert Spear as nominator.1
Neither source reports the tower being closed, moved or torn down. Neither describes public access or visits. This is a working fire watch tower, so check with the Florida Forest Service before any visit, and do not climb it without permission.
- Okeechobee Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/fl/okeechobee-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Okeechobee fire watch tower helps spot wildfires, WPTV (undated), https://www.wptv.com/news/region-okeechobee-county/florida-forest-service-rangers-pilots-spot-fires-map-out-safe-routes-for-crews-to-get-to-the-fire (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, agency, staffing, 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 1066 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Okeechobee fire watch tower helps spot wildfires (WPTV (undated)) (opens another site)
- Okeechobee (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.