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Fire lookout · Pulaski County, Indiana

Winamac Fire Tower

Also known as Beard’s Hill

A 90-foot WPA-built Aermotor steel fire tower in Tippecanoe River State Park, Indiana, open to visitors to climb via a quarter-mile trail.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Open for visitors to climb, via about a quarter-mile trail from the parking area in Tippecanoe River State Park.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About a 0.25 mile hike from the parking area to the tower.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2026-10-04)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor steel tower with a 7x7 ft cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1937
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
756 ft (230 m)
Agency
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Land
State land
Location
Pulaski County, Indiana
Coordinates
41.11331, −86.59241
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-in-winamac

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

  1. 1937 BuiltBuilt by Works Progress Administration labor in Tippecanoe River State Park, per the National Historic Lookout Register.Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1940 BuiltAn alternate source dates completion of the WPA-built steel tower to 1940.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1940 and 2013
  4. 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register (US 975) on September 1, 2013.Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Winamac Fire Tower stands in Tippecanoe River State Park in Pulaski County, Indiana. It's a 90-foot Aermotor steel tower topped with a 7-by-7-foot cab, built in 1937 by Works Progress Administration labor as part of the New Deal push to build out fire-detection infrastructure.1 A separate history page puts the completion year at 1940 instead, so the sources don't fully agree on exactly when the WPA crews finished the job.2

Unlike many of the lookouts on the National Historic Lookout Register, the National Historic Lookout Register's own survey notes that Winamac has not been staffed, at least not within the memory captured by whoever filled out that record.1 That fits its role today more as a park landmark than an active fire-watch post.

The tower sits within Tippecanoe River State Park, reached by about a quarter-mile trail from the parking area; a park ranger has been known to point visitors toward the trailhead.1 The National Historic Lookout Register specifically notes that it is open for visitors to climb, making it one of the more accessible lookouts on the register rather than one locked away behind a fence or private land.1

There's no record here of the tower being rented out as overnight lodging, which tracks with its location on state park land and its role as a short, climbable day-use structure rather than a cabin-style lookout. It carries National Historic Lookout Register number US 975.1

  1. Winamac Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/in/winamac-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Winamac, Eastern U.S. Lookouts (weebly), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/winamac.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Winamac Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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 -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: ownership, 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. Indiana Fire Towers (Mark Armantrout) Gave us: links Indiana Fire Towers (Mark Armantrout, indianafiretowers.com) · No licence stated; facts only (names, county, coordinates, a status read from the condition line, links). The guide's histories, trip reports and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.