Fire lookout · Beltrami County, Minnesota
Pine Island Lookout (now at Big Bog)
Also known as Big Bog, Upper Red Lake Fire Tower
100-ft Aermotor lookout erected 1937 at the Pine Island station, Koochiching Co., MN; moved in 2011 and reopened as a climbable tower in Big Bog State Recreation Area.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Visitors may climb the stairs during regular visitor center hours; the sources give no other restriction
- Can you climb it?
- Yes
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- In the south unit of Big Bog State Recreation Area, on Highway 72, near the visitor center. IFalls guide gives visitor center hours Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor stairway towerThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1937
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Minnesota DNR (Big Bog State Recreation Area)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Beltrami County, Minnesota
- Coordinates
- 48.17012, −94.51192
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mn-pine-island-at-big-bog
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 4.1 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
- 1937 BuiltErected at the Pine Island station in Koochiching County; built to match an earlier tower on the same siteSources: upload.wikimedia.org, dnr.state.mn.us
- No record between 1937 and 2011
- 2011 MovedMoved from Pine Island to the Big Bog State Recreation AreaSources: upload.wikimedia.org, dnr.state.mn.us, ifalls.news
- 2011 RestoredRenovated, re-constructed and reopened to the public at Big BogSources: dnr.state.mn.us, ifalls.news
- Date unknown MovedMoved from Pine Island to Big Bog.Source: FFLA
- 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.
Pine Island was a forestry station in Koochiching County, Minnesota, and the lookout there was erected in 1937.1,2 The Minnesota DNR says the tower was built to match an earlier tower on the same site.2 The Beltrami County tower report describes it as a 100-foot Aermotor stairway tower.1
The DNR ties the 1930s fires on the Big Bog to fire towers built on Ludlow Island and on the Tamarac River.3 The sources we read do not name any fire this particular tower watched, and we did not find named lookouts for the Pine Island station.3
In 2011 the tower was moved from Pine Island to the Big Bog State Recreation Area, where it was renovated, rebuilt and reopened to the public.1,3,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association’s Minnesota list marks the Pine Island site as gone and the Big Bog tower as standing.5
The tower stands in the south unit of the park on Highway 72, near the visitor center.2,4 Visitors may climb the 100-foot tower during regular visitor center hours.3 The IFalls guide gives those hours as Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so check before you go.4 A camera on the tower sends a live view to a kiosk in the visitor center.3
Both the county report and the DNR give the height as 100 feet, about 30.5 metres.1,2
- 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). ↩
- Big Bog State Recreation Area Webcam, Minnesota DNR, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state-parks/big-bog-cam/index.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Big Bog State Recreation Area (virtual tour), Minnesota DNR, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/virtual_tour/big_bog/dialup.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Big Bog State Recreation Area, IFalls.guide, https://ifalls.news/big-bog-state-recreation-area/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Minnesota Fire Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mn/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: height, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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
- Beltrami County Minnesota Fire Lookout Towers (report) (Wikimedia Commons) (opens another site)
- Big Bog State Recreation Area Webcam (Minnesota DNR) (opens another site)
- Big Bog State Recreation Area (virtual tour) (Minnesota DNR) (opens another site)
- Big Bog State Recreation Area (IFalls.guide) (opens another site)
- FFLA Minnesota lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 6620353501 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.