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Fire lookout · Hubbard County, Minnesota

Bemidji Fire Tower (now at Camp Wilderness)

Also known as Bemidji Fire Tower, Camp Wilderness

Bemidji's 1935 fire tower, used later as an antenna site, moved to Camp Wilderness in 2007 and was rebuilt at 80 ft; access and climbing rules not confirmed.

Original site: Bemidji

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 cab, rebuilt as an 80-foot tower at Camp WildernessThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,521 ft (464 m)
Agency
Northern Lights Council No. 429, Boy Scouts of America
Land
Unknown
Location
Hubbard County, Minnesota
Coordinates
47.09493, −94.94542
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mn-bemidji-at-camp-wilderness

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 3.7 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. 1935 Builtbuilt by the Minnesota DNR; served as a lookout for 60 yearsSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 2006
  3. 2006 Abandonedlookout use ended; the Register says the tower became surplus again in 2006 (the exact decommissioning date is not given)Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2007 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered November 2, 2007; US 710, MN 9Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2007 MovedBoy Scouts moved it from Bemidji to Camp Wilderness in Hubbard CountySources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com, upload.wikimedia.org
  6. 2007 Restoredrestored and reconstructed as an 80-foot tower next to the mess hallSources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  7. Date unknown MovedMoved from Bemidji to Camp Wilderness.Source: FFLA
  8. 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 National Historic Lookout Register says the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources built the Bemidji fire tower in 1935, and that it worked as a lookout for 60 years.1 The tower was 100 feet tall, an Aermotor design with a metal cab about seven feet square.1

After it stopped serving as a lookout, the tower went to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for use as an antenna site.1 A 2007 report from the Minnesota chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association says the state transportation department was the owner and had used it that way for about fifteen years.2

In 2007 the Boy Scouts moved the tower to Camp Wilderness in Hubbard County and rebuilt it as an 80-foot tower beside the mess hall.1,3,4 Sources differ on the kind of camp. One county report calls the new site a private camp, while the Register lists the Northern Lights Council of the Boy Scouts as the administrator.4,1

The council's own page thanks Steve Inkel of Diversified Builders and Design.5 The page lists an option to purchase a step on the tower as currently unavailable, and it offers a virtual tour of the plaques on the steps, landings and crow's nest.5

I did not find public climbing hours, so I cannot say whether visitors may climb the tower. Ask Camp Wilderness before you go.

  1. Bemidji Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mn/bemidji-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Minnesota Chapter of the FFLA Report 2007, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-mn-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bemidji, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/bemidji.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Beltrami County Minnesota Fire Lookout Towers report, Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Beltrami_County_Towers_Report_-_corrected.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Camp Wilderness Fire Tower, Northern Lights Council, https://scoutingnlc.org/camp-wilderness-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bemidji Fire Tower (now at Camp Wilderness)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: 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: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 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

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