FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lyon County, Kentucky

Hematite Fire Tower

Also known as Curry Hollow

80-foot CCC-era Aermotor LS-40 tower on Land Between The Lakes, administered by the U.S. Forest Service; NHLR-registered 2009. Build year and county disagree across sources.

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 (as of undated)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower, also known as Curry Hollow or Wildland Tower #1The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
569 ft (173 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lyon County, Kentucky
Coordinates
36.91944, −88.09722
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ky-hematite

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 3.0 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. 1930 BuiltThe Register's Built field gives 1930; its description says the CCC built it in the 1930sSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1930 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 3, 2009 as US 833, KY 8Source: 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 Hematite Fire Tower stands on the Land Between The Lakes NRA, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The National Historic Lookout Register places it in Lyon County, Kentucky.1 A Forest Lookouts page that lists the tower as Curry Hollow (Hematite) gives Trigg County instead.2

The Register describes an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower, also known as Curry Hollow or Wildland Tower #1.1 It gives 1930 as the build year.1 Its description says only that the Civilian Conservation Corps built the tower in the 1930s, in what was known as the Kentucky Woodlands Wildlife Refuge.1 A related tower, Wildland #2, was built by the Corps in 1937 for the state division of forestry, and it first stood in the same refuge area.3

The Register gives November 3, 2009 as the registration date, with Trenton C. Girard as nominator.1

The sources read do not say who staffs the tower, whether it is open to visitors, or whether the public may climb it. They also name no fires it watched.1,2,3

Anyone planning a visit to the Land Between The Lakes should check with the Forest Service about the tower before going.

  1. Hematite Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ky/hematite-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Curry Hollow, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/curry-hollow.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wildland #2 Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (firetower.org), http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/ky/wildland-2-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hematite Fire 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, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.