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Fire lookout · Screven County, Georgia

Sylvania Lookout Tower

Georgia Forestry Commission steel lookout in Screven County, registered 2013. The register gives 1940 as the build year but also says late 1930s or early 1940s.

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
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1940
Height
Unknown
Elevation
218 ft (66 m)
Agency
Georgia Forestry Commission
Land
Unknown
Location
Screven County, Georgia
Coordinates
32.76496, −81.64955
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ga-sylvania

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1940 BuiltRegister build field says 1940; its description says built around the late 1930s or early 1940sSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1940 and 2013
  3. 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on January 3, 2013Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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.

The Sylvania Lookout Tower stands in Screven County, Georgia, at an elevation the register gives as 218 feet (66 m).1 It is a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1

The register gives the build year two ways. Its build field says 1940, while its description puts construction in the late 1930s or early 1940s, so the exact year is uncertain.1

The Georgia Forestry Commission administers the tower, and the register lists its Ogeechee District as a cooperator.1 The register also notes a forestry station that is still operating at the base of the tower.1 The Commission's Screven County wildfire protection plan places its county unit on Buttermilk Road, on the northwest side of Sylvania, and gives the office address as 862 Buttermilk Rd.2 The plan does not say whether the tower sits on that same site.

The tower was registered on January 3, 2013, on a nomination by Mike Finch, Jr.1

The sources do not say whether visitors may climb the tower, and they name no fires it watched. Because the register describes an operating forestry station at its base, do not climb the tower without permission.1

  1. Sylvania Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ga/sylvania-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Screven County CWPP, Georgia Forestry Commission, https://gatrees.org/resources/screven-cwpp-2019/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Sylvania Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Sylvania Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Sylvania Lookout 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, 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
  2. tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN Gave us: type, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, 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.