Fire lookout · Burke County, Georgia
Girard Lookout Tower
1940 Aermotor LS-40 type tower in Burke County, administered by the Georgia Forestry Commission; NHLR says the site appears abandoned and the steps were removed.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Restricted access
Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Steps removed to prevent entry; the sources give no visiting arrangement
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Bottom steps removed to prevent entry, per NHLR
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor LS-40 type steel tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1940
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 255 ft (78 m)
- Agency
- Georgia Forestry Commission
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Burke County, Georgia
- Coordinates
- 33.06500, −81.72114
- Registers
- NHLR US 956 · GA 14
- BLL US 41103
- GFC US 103
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ga-girard
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
- 1940 BuiltNHLR Built field gives 1940; its description says built around the late 1930s or early 1940sSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1940 and 2013
- 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 3, 2013; nominated by Mike Finch, Jr.Source: 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 Girard Lookout Tower is in Burke County, and the National Historic Lookout Register lists the Georgia Forestry Commission as its administrator.1 The Register gives 1940 as the build year, but its description puts construction around the late 1930s or early 1940s.1
The tower is an 80-foot steel tower of Aermotor LS-40 type, with a cab seven feet square. A second Georgia list records the same design for the Burke County site.1,2 Mike Finch, Jr. nominated it, and the Register lists its registration date as January 3, 2013.1
The sources I read do not say who staffed the tower or whether it watched any particular fire.
According to the Register, the bottom steps have been removed to prevent entry, and the site appears to be abandoned.1 I found no newer source on its condition.
Nothing in these sources suggests the public can visit or climb the tower, and the removed steps point the other way.1 The Register names the Georgia Forestry Commission as administrator, so that is the office to contact about it.1 Until then, treat the structure as off limits.
- Girard Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ga/girard-lookout-tower/ (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: register numbers, 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, 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
- NHLR register entry US 956 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Georgia (Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- girard (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.