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Fire lookout · Union County, Georgia

Black Mountain Fire Tower

1949 metal fire tower on Black Mountain, Chattahoochee National Forest, Union County, Georgia; NHLR-registered 2007. Fenced and locked; 2014 and 2018 visit reports.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Tower fenced with barbed wire; gate and cab door locked; no source says the public may climb it

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
The Appalachian Trail passes below the summit; the AT access detour is 0.4 mile with 400 feet of gain, per a hiker's history site. A 2014 visit report describes the access road as overgrown and steep, with about a mile on foot.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2018-11-25)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerMetal tower with a 13 by 13 foot live-in cab and catwalk (NHLR)The design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Built
1949
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,114 ft (949 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Georgia
Coordinates
34.68000, −84.00972
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ga-black-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 3.1 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. 1938 EventA hiker's history site says the lookout first appears on a 1938 map; this may mean an earlier structure. Unconfirmed.Source: willhiteweb.com
  2. 1949 BuiltNHLR and Georgia ForestWatch both give 1949; a paper sign on the fence names the Civilian Conservation Corps, which the Register does not repeatSources: nhlr.org, gamountaintreasures.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1949 and 2007
  4. 2007 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 26, 2007Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2014 Condition assessmentVisit reports of January 19 and October 4, 2014: gate locked, tower unstaffed, radio repeater equipment installedSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2018 Condition assessmentVisit report of November 25, 2018: windows removed and boarded, cab door locked and padlocked, structure appears soundSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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.

Black Mountain's fire tower stands in Union County, Georgia, inside the Chattahoochee National Forest.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers it, and the Blue Ridge Ranger District is listed as a cooperator.1

The Register says the tower was constructed in 1949 and describes a 13-by-13-foot live-in cab with a catwalk.1 Georgia ForestWatch also gives 1949 as the build year.2 A paper sign on the fence, reported on a hiker's history site, says the Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1949. The Register names no builder, so this story does not repeat that claim.3,1

The same hiker's history site says the lookout first appears on a 1938 map. That may mean a lookout stood there before the 1949 tower, but the sources do not say what, if anything, the 1949 tower replaced.3

The Register lists the tower as registered on July 26, 2007.1 Its visit reports from 2014 and 2018 both say the tower is not staffed.1 The sources do not list any fires it watched.

The hiker's history site says the tower currently houses emergency communication equipment for Lumpkin and Union counties, and for groups including Camp F.D. Merrill, Blue Ridge EMC, Civil Air Patrol, the Forest Service and amateur radio.3 A Register visit report says it appears that radio repeater equipment is installed on the tower.1 The November 2018 visit report found the windows removed and boarded over and the cab door locked and padlocked, and said the tower appears structurally sound.1

Today the tower is locked and surrounded by a six-foot barbed wire fence, according to the hiker's history site.3 A 2014 visit report found the access road overgrown and steep, and said visitors would have to hike about a mile.1 The Appalachian Trail passes below the summit. According to the same site, the AT access detour is 0.4 mile with 400 feet of climb.3

Do not climb the tower. The sources do not say the public may go up it.1,3

  1. Black Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ga/black-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Black Mountain, Georgia ForestWatch, https://gamountaintreasures.org/gmt/black-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Black Mountain Lookout Site, willhiteweb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/appalachian_trail/black_mountain/tower_010.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Black Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Black Mountain Fire 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, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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, status, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, 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

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