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Fire lookout · Rabun County, Georgia

Glassy Mountain Fire Tower

1941 Forest Service fire tower on Glassy Mountain, Rabun County, GA; standing, sometimes staffed, reached by a locked gate and a hike.

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. Dirt road ends at a locked vehicle barrier gate about 1 mile from the tower. The sources state no climbing rule.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
From the locked gate about a mile from the tower, the rest of the way is a climb up the mountain
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower55-foot metal tower with a 13x13-foot CL-100 series live-in cab and catwalk (register); the Weebly listing calls it a 55-foot steel K-brace replacement towerThe design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Built
1941
Height
55 ft (16.8 m)
Elevation
3,315 ft (1,010 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Rabun County, Georgia
Coordinates
34.84694, −83.50139
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ga-glassy-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. 1941 BuiltBuilt 1941 (register and Wikipedia)Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. No record between 1941 and 1960
  3. 1960 AlteredGround residence and garage added in the 1960s; sources give the decade only, so 1960 is a placeholderSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1960 and 2007
  5. 2007 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 26, 2007; nominated by John MayerSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2018 Condition assessmentVisit report dated September 2, 2018: good condition overall; rust on the cab; windows broken; staffing listed as sometimesSource: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Glassy Mountain Fire Tower stands atop Glassy Mountain in Rabun County, Georgia, inside the Chattahoochee National Forest.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register and Wikipedia both date it to 1941.1,2 The register describes a 55-foot metal tower with a 13-by-13-foot CL-100 series live-in cab and a catwalk.1 A ground residence and garage were added in the 1960s.1,2

The Weebly listing calls the current structure a 55-foot steel K-brace replacement tower, but it gives no date or reason for the replacement.3 That does not fit neatly with a 1941 build date, so the history of the current structure is unclear.3,1

The register notes a Forest Service building at the base that looks well used. Many visitors have reported the site was not staffed, and the register lists staffing as sometimes.1

A 2018 visit report found the tower standing and in good condition overall. It noted rust on the cab and a number of broken window panes.1

The road in is dirt and gravel, and it can take only one vehicle at a time. A locked barrier gate sits about a mile from the tower, and the rest of the way is a walk up the mountain.1 The sources do not say whether climbing the tower is allowed, so I would check with the U.S. Forest Service before climbing.1

  1. Glassy Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ga/glassy-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Glassy Mountain (Georgia), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassy_Mountain_(Georgia) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Glassy Mountain, FOREST LOOKOUTS, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/glassy-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

October 2016
October 2016 (2016)Photo: John W, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Glassy Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Glassy Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: Patrick Warren, via 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. tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, 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
  4. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.