Fire lookout · Aitkin County, Minnesota
Quadna Fire Tower
Aitkin County, MN tower on Quadna Mountain near Hill City: 81-ft Aermotor ladder tower built 1929, still standing and used as an antenna mast above a former ski hill.
- 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
- Trail
- Survey describes a decent hike on an access road to the tower on Quadna Mountain; the mountain is now a townhouse property
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower81-foot Aermotor ladder tower (Tower 42)The design: Aermotor
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1929
- Height
- 81 ft (24.7 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Mn MFS (state forest service), per the Aitkin County survey
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Aitkin County, Minnesota
- Coordinates
- 46.96281, −93.58692
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mn-quadna
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
- 1929 BuiltAitkin County survey: 81-foot Aermotor ladder tower erected in 1929 (listed as Tower 42)Source: upload.wikimedia.org
- No record between 1929 and 1964
- 1964 EventLodge on Quadna Mountain opened; described as a premier ski lodgeSource: forgottenminnesota.com
- 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.
Quadna Fire Tower stands on Quadna Mountain near Hill City, in Aitkin County, Minnesota.1,2 The county survey, which lists the owner as Mn MFS, calls it Tower 42.1 The survey describes it as an 81-foot Aermotor tower of ladder construction, put up in 1929.1 We found no conflicting build date.
Quadna Mountain was once a downhill ski area.3 A lodge on the mountain opened in 1964 and was described as a premier ski lodge.4 The ski area is no longer operating.3
The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.5 A tower-history page places the tower on top of an old ski hill, where it is used as a mast for communication antennas.3 The sources we read name no one who staffed the tower and no fire it watched.
Today the Quadna Mountain Townhouse Association describes the mountain as a townhouse property with 93 units.2 The sources do not say who owns the tower now or whether visitors are allowed. According to the county survey, reaching the tower means a fair hike on an access road.1 Before you go, ask the townhouse association or Aitkin County, and do not climb the tower.
- Aitkin County Minnesota Fire Lookout Towers, Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Aitkin_County_Minnesota_Fire_Lookout_Towers.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- About Us, Quadna Mountain Townhouse Association, https://www.qmta.org/html/about-us.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Quadna, Historical Minnesota Fire Towers, kjackson.us, https://kjackson.us/towers/Quadna.php (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Remembering Quadna Resort, Forgotten Minnesota, https://www.forgottenminnesota.com/2021/04/16/remembering-quadna-resort/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Minnesota Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mn/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) (opens another site) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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
- Aitkin County Minnesota Fire Lookout Towers (Wikimedia Commons) (opens another site)
- Remembering Quadna Resort (Forgotten Minnesota) (opens another site)
- Quadna (Historical Minnesota Fire Towers (kjackson.us)) (opens another site)
- About Us (Quadna Mountain Townhouse Association) (opens another site)
- FFLA Minnesota lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Wikidata item Q107506840 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.