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Fire lookout · Ripley County, Missouri

Doniphan Lookout

Ripley County, MO 100-foot Aermotor LS40 tower built 1958-59 on MDC's Doniphan Towersite; tornado-destroyed and rebuilt in 1985; closed to the public for repairs.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. MDC notice says the firetower is closed to the public for repairs (undated); the register says it was not open to the public as of 2023

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Reached by a gravel road to the top of the hill at the towersite; the tower is closed to the public. Do not climb.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor LS40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1958
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
653 ft (199 m)
Agency
Missouri Department of Conservation
Land
State land
Location
Ripley County, Missouri
Coordinates
36.65102, −90.79544
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mo-doniphan

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 3.4 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. 1958 BuiltRegister gives the build period as 1958-1959Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1964 AlteredNew garage built at the Doniphan Towersite (FY1964-65)Source: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1964 and 1985
  4. 1985 DestroyedTornado destroyed the tower in February 1985Source: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1985 RebuiltListed as rebuilt after the February 1985 tornado; no rebuild date givenSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1985 and 2023
  7. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 31, 2023; nominated by Jerry LutesSource: nhlr.org
  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 Doniphan lookout stands on the Doniphan Towersite in Ripley County, which the Missouri Department of Conservation administers.1,2

The register gives the tower's height as 100 feet, an Aermotor LS40 model put up in 1958 and 1959.1 The Forest Lookouts site records that a garage was built at the towersite in fiscal 1964 to 1965.2

In February 1985 a tornado destroyed the tower.2 The Forest Lookouts site says it was then rebuilt, but it gives no date for the rebuilding and no details of the new structure.2

As of 2023 the register said the tower was used for fire detection only in peak fire season and was not open to the public.1 It also calls the structure sound, noting that some wooden steps had recently been replaced.1

The department's towersite page carries a notice that the tower is shut to visitors for repairs. The notice has no date, so we cannot say how long it has been in place.3 We found no record that the tower has reopened, so please do not climb it while it is closed.

The register added the tower on December 31, 2023, on the nomination of Jerry Lutes.1

  1. Doniphan Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mo/doniphan-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Doniphan, Forest Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/doniphan.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Doniphan Towersite, Missouri Department of Conservation, https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/doniphan-towersite (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Doniphan Lookout
Photo: Jerry Lutes, via 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, status, 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 LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: ownership, 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, 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

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