Fire lookout · Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Hanson Fire Tower
Steel tower on Bonney Hill, Hanson, Mass., built 1969; register says the first tower moved to Pelham in 1920, while a 1920 State Forester report gives 50 feet against the register's 48.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower70-foot steel tower with a 10 by 10 foot cab, built 1969 on Bonney Hill
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1969
- Height
- 70 ft (21.3 m)
- Elevation
- 153 ft (47 m)
- Agency
- Mass. Bureau of Forest Fire Control
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Plymouth County, Massachusetts
- Coordinates
- 42.05278, −70.87639
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ma-hanson
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
- 1920 MovedFirst tower moved to Pelham, per the register (48 ft); a 1920 State Forester report gives 50 ft. The register says a 68-foot tower replaced it.Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1920 and 1969
- 1969 BuiltCurrent 70-foot steel tower built on Bonney HillSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1969 and 2004
- 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 15, 2004 as US 611, MA 22Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Hanson Fire Tower stands on Bonney Hill.1 Wikipedia lists Bonney Hill as the town's highest point, at 152 feet.2 The register places the tower in the Town of Hanson, though its description says it is near Plymouth.1
The register describes the first tower here as a 48-foot steel structure.1 It attributes the move to rapid tree growth: in 1920 that tower went to Pelham, and a 68-foot tower replaced it.1 A State Forester report for 1920, dated January 1921, describes the same move but gives the tower as 50 feet tall.3 The 1921 date probably comes from that report, so the sources most likely describe one move, with the height in dispute.3
The present tower is a 70-foot steel structure with a 10-by-10-foot cab, built in 1969.1 The register records its registration on December 15, 2004.1 The Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control administers it.1
I found no current access, staffing or condition information for this tower in the sources I read. Check with the town or the state before going.
- Hanson Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ma/hanson-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Hanson, Massachusetts, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanson,_Massachusetts (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Mount Lincoln (Pelham), Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/mount-lincoln.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 611 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Mount Lincoln (Pelham) (Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- Hanson, Massachusetts (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.