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Fire lookout · Iron County, Michigan

Gibbs City Fire Tower

Iron County, MI tower erected by CCC Company 3611 in 1939-40 in the Ottawa National Forest; replaced by air detection in 1970; the register calls it the district's last tower.

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 tower100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,683 ft (513 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Iron County, Michigan
Coordinates
46.17995, −88.69840
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mi-gibbs-city

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 3.9 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. 1939 BuiltErected by CCC Company 3611 (James Lake); register dates the work to 1939-40Source: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 1970
  3. 1970 Replaced by a new structureRemained active until 1970, when air detection replaced itSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1970 and 1996
  5. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 30, 1996; nominated by E. B. Fitzpatrick and Roger Hakari, Iron River DistrictSource: 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 Gibbs City Fire Tower stands in Iron County, Michigan, in the Ottawa National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The register credits Company 3611 (James Lake) of the Civilian Conservation Corps with erecting it in 1939 and 1940.1 It is a 100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1

The forest also holds the site of Gibbs City, a sawmill town.2 A fire destroyed the mill in 1921, and most of the town was left empty.2 A controlled burn destroyed the last standing buildings in 1966.2

The register says the tower remained active until 1970, when air detection replaced it.1 We found no named lookouts or notable fires for this tower in the sources we read.

A Michigan fire-tower history site says that in 1962 aerial surveillance and population growth led to the decline of the state's towers, and that the state began selling the towers in 1970.3 That is a statewide account, not a record of this tower.

According to the register, this is the only fire tower left on the Iron River district.1 It gives no recent condition report, and we found no current access information. The Iron River Ranger District is listed as a cooperator, so ask there before visiting.1 Do not climb the tower unless the Forest Service says it is open.

  1. Gibbs City Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mi/gibbs-city-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Gibbs City, Michigan, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_City,_Michigan (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. History, Michigan Fire Towers, https://michiganfiretower.com/history/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Gibbs City 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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.