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Fire lookout · Bristol County, Massachusetts

Acushnet Fire Tower

Also known as Mendall Hill Fire Tower

Mendall Hill, Acushnet MA: a Civilian Conservation Corps 60-ft Aermotor replaced a 1918 tower in 1937; NHLR-registered 2004; no staffing or access sources found.

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 tower60-foot Aermotor tower with a 10 by 10 foot wooden cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1918
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
142 ft (43 m)
Agency
Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control
Land
Unknown
Location
Bristol County, Massachusetts
Coordinates
41.70083, −70.88361
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ma-acushnet

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. 1918 Builtfirst tower on the summit: 48 feet, 10 by 10 foot room, stairs; five towns contributed $900 toward the costSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1918 and 1937
  3. 1937 BuiltCivilian Conservation Corps built the present 60-foot Aermotor tower, replacing the 1918 towerSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1937 and 2004
  5. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered February 2, 2004; US 558, MA 8Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 Acushnet fire tower stands on Mendall Hill in Bristol County, Massachusetts.1 A tower stood on that summit almost two decades before the current one.1 In 1918 a 48-foot tower with a 10-by-10-foot room and stairs went up there, and five towns pooled $900 toward its cost.1 The 1918 State Forester's report describes its coverage as several thousand acres of woods in the nearby towns.1

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the present tower in 1937, replacing the 1918 one.2,1 The Register describes the present tower as 60 feet tall, an Aermotor design, with a wooden cab about ten feet square.2 The National Historic Lookout Register added the tower on February 2, 2004.2

I did not find any account of who staffed this lookout or of any fire it helped fight, so those parts of its story are blank here.

Today the Register names the Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control as the agency that runs the tower.2 I could not confirm whether the public may visit or climb it. Ask the Bureau before going up, and do not climb it without permission.

  1. Massachusetts, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/massachusetts.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Acushnet Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ma/acushnet-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Acushnet 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, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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

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