FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Henderson County, Illinois

Big River Lookout

Also known as Big River State Forest

60-ft steel fire tower built 1941 in Big River State Forest, Henderson County, Illinois; standing; climb by key from the caretaker per a 2024 blog; NHLR-registered 1994.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. Base is behind a locked fence; a key to climb is obtained from the caretaker, who is not always on site (2024 blog)

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot steel tower with a glass-enclosed cab; Aermotor design per a 2024 blogThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1941
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
576 ft (176 m)
Agency
Illinois Department of Conservation
Land
Unknown
Location
Henderson County, Illinois
Coordinates
41.04670, −90.93060
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-il-big-river

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 3.5 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 BuiltNHLR and the 2024 blog give 1941; the July 1941 Dispatch item says the tower had been orderedSources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com, panethos.wordpress.com
  2. No record between 1941 and 1994
  3. 1994 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 12, 1994; nominated by David A. Gillespie, Illinois Division of Forest ResourcesSource: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Big River Lookout stands on the eastern bluffs along the Mississippi River, inside Big River State Forest in Henderson County, Illinois, just south of Keithsburg.1,2

A July 16, 1941 item in The Dispatch, quoted by the Forest Lookouts site, says the tower had been ordered and would be put up once the material came in. It was to be sixty feet tall, of steel, with a glass-enclosed cab.3 The National Historic Lookout Register and a 2024 blog post both give 1941 as the build year.1,2 The blog calls the tower an Aermotor design from Chicago.2

The Illinois Department of Conservation administers the tower.1 The sources read do not name any lookout who worked it or any fire it watched.

The Register accepted the tower on March 12, 1994. Its entry says all of the federal towers in the state are gone and that only two state towers remain.1 The 2024 blog says three lookouts are left in Illinois, so the two sources do not agree on the count.2

The tower still stands. The 2024 blog found it in remarkably good shape, with wooden steps and landings.2 Its base is surrounded by a locked wooden fence, but a key to climb it can often be had from the caretaker after a short walk to the state forest.2 The blog warns that the caretaker is not always on site, especially in the off season. It also says two windows were missing from the cab on its visit, and that the caretaker has replaced windows many times over the years.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.4

The sources give no official hours. A reader comment on the 2024 blog lists a park phone number that we could not confirm, and the blog itself is from April 2024. Check before you go, and do not climb past the fence without a key from the caretaker.

  1. Big River Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/il/big-river-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Scaling one of the last remaining fire lookout towers in Illinois, Panethos (blog), https://panethos.wordpress.com/2024/04/25/scaling-one-the-last-remaining-fire-lookout-towers-in-illinois/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Big River State Forest, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/big-river-state-forest.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Illinois Lookouts (Standing), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/il/il-st/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Big River Lookout
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, 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links centraluslookouts.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, staffing, 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.