Fire lookout · Walton County, Georgia
Fairwood Fire Tower
1952 Aermotor LS-40 tower first erected as the Ila Tower in Madison County; moved to Walton County in 1973; privately owned; NHLR-registered 1997.
- Standing
- Private land
- Verified
Private land
No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned and on the Fairwoods Stewardship and Educational Forest; the sources give no visiting arrangement
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with 7 by 7 foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1952
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 717 ft (219 m)
- Agency
- Don and Edith Shedd (private owners)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Walton County, Georgia
- Coordinates
- 33.73612, −83.65741
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ga-fairwood
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 3.2 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
- 1952 BuiltFirst erected as the Ila Tower in Madison County for the Georgia Forestry CommissionSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1952 and 1973
- 1973 AlteredExterior catwalk added during the moveSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1973 MovedMoved from the Ila site in Madison County to Walton CountySources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1973 and 1997
- 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 9, 1997; nominated by Don SheddSource: 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 tower began its working life as the Ila Tower in Madison County.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was originally put up in 1952 for the Georgia Forestry Commission, and that a crew of oil well derrick builders from Texas assembled it.1,2 The Register describes it as an 80-foot steel Aermotor LS-40 tower with a metal cab measuring 7 by 7 feet.1
In 1973 the tower was relocated to Walton County, and an outside catwalk was added during the move.1,3
The Register places it on the Fairwoods Stewardship and Educational Forest, which belongs to Don and Edith Shedd.1 It describes the tower as privately owned.1 It was registered on September 9, 1997, and the Register notes that it is the first Georgia fire tower it has listed.1
The sources I could read do not say who staffed the tower in Walton County or whether it ever watched a particular fire. The Register lists no fire history for it.1
The sources do not describe the tower's condition now. The Register names no visiting arrangement for this privately owned site, so the owners control access.1 Anyone curious should ask them first, and should not climb the tower without their clear permission.
- Fairwood Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ga/fairwood-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Ila, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/ila.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Georgia, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/georgia.html (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
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN (opens another site) Gave us: links tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan) · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, county, elevation, NGS/GFC/BLL register cross-references, status where given). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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 226 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Ila (Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- Georgia (Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- fairwood (tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan)) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.