FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Cass County, Minnesota

Gull Lake

Cass County, MN; a 1911 steel tower near Gull Lake and CCC Tower 19 (1937, 100 ft) on the west side; listed gone by FFLA, removal date not found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FFLA lists it as gone; the Cass County list describes it in the past tense; no removal date or account found

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower100-ft Aermotor stairway tower, Tower #19, erected by the CCC in 1937The design: Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1911
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Minnesota Forest Service
Land
Unknown
Location
Cass County, Minnesota
Coordinates
46.44329, −94.37655
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mn-gull-lake

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

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. 1911 BuiltState report: steel tower erected on a hill near Gull Lake, west of Brainerd; the Cass County list places an early 60-ft steel tower on Dutchman's Bluff insteadSources: centraluslookouts.weebly.com, upload.wikimedia.org
  2. No record between 1911 and 1937
  3. 1937 BuiltTower #19, a 100-ft Aermotor stairway tower erected by the CCC on a hill along the west side of the lakeSource: upload.wikimedia.org
  4. 1949 StaffedMembers of the Minnesota State Forest Service manned the tower through the fire seasonSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1949 and 1970
  6. 1970 EventBrainerd forestry office reported the tower entered by breaking the lock; nothing reported damaged or takenSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

A 1911 state report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, describes a steel lookout on a hill near Gull Lake, west of Brainerd.1 The Cass County list places an early 60-foot steel tower on Dutchman's Bluff, on the north shore, and says it was probably among the first steel towers shipped to the Brainerd area.2

The Cass County list also gives a separate Tower 19: a 100-foot Aermotor stairway tower, erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1937 on a hill along the west side of the lake.2 The sources do not say whether Tower 19 replaced the 1911 tower.1,2

A 1949 Brainerd Daily Dispatch item described the lookout on the western shore of Gull Lake and said Minnesota State Forest Service members staffed it throughout the fire season.1

A June 1970 Brainerd Daily Dispatch item quoted a Brainerd forestry office official saying someone had forced the lock on the Gull Lake lookout, though apparently nothing was harmed or missing.1 The Cass County list describes Tower 19 in the past tense, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists a Gull Lake tower as gone.2,3 The sources do not say when or how it came down.1,2,3

No source describes what, if anything, remains of either tower today.1,2 The Cass County list says Mt. Ski Gull is located on Tower 19's hill, and the sources we read say nothing about public access.2

  1. Gull Lake, Forest Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/gull-lake.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Cass County Fire Lookout Towers, Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Cass_County_Towers.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Minnesota Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mn/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links centraluslookouts.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.