FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Reynolds County, Missouri

Marcoot Lookout Station

Steel lookout tower on Highway 72 in Reynolds County, Mark Twain National Forest; 1934 construction under way, built by CCC Company 732; NHLR-registered August 2026.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service land with free parking in the tower area (Salem News). No source read confirms whether the tower can be climbed; a hike write-up mentions a locked gate further west on Highway 72.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A Salem News hike feature gives directions from Highway 72 in Reynolds County, turning into the tower parking area. A Trail of Tears sign stands across the highway from the tower.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerFour-legged steel tower with a glassed-in lookout room and finial; register lists it as model MC-39The design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
110 ft (33.5 m)
Elevation
1,429 ft (436 m)
Agency
US Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Reynolds County, Missouri
Coordinates
37.56213, −91.30986
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mo-marcoot

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 3.3 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. 1934 EventFoundation being dug by November 22, 1934; newspaper said completion would follow about a week after the pour. Completion date not confirmed in sources read.Sources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 2026
  3. 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 18, 2026 as US 1851, MO 20Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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 Marcoot Lookout Station stands near Highway 72 in Reynolds County, inside the Mark Twain National Forest, between Salem and Bunker.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers it.2

A November 1934 newspaper item reported that the foundation was being dug, and that the tower would be finished about a week after the pour.3 The same item planned a stairway in place of the ladder used at the Buick and Czar towers, and put the cab floor at ninety-nine feet, nine inches.3 A Salem News feature credits Company 732 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, attached to Boss CCC Camp F-1, with building Marcoot along with the Buick, Czar and Black towers.1 The sources read do not give a completion date.

The register calls the tower a model MC-39.2 A 1939 survey description, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, puts the tower at about 110 feet and describes four legs, a glassed lookout room and a finial on top.3 That description does not say where its height is measured, so it cannot be set against the 1934 cab-floor plan with confidence.3

The register added the tower on August 18, 2026.2 The sources read do not describe it being abandoned, burned, moved or restored.

The National Park Service lists the site as historically significant to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, and names the U.S. Forest Service as its manager.4 A Salem News hike feature describes the tower as scenic, and says visitors can park in its area for free.1 The same feature places a Trail of Tears sign across the highway from the tower, and mentions a locked gate further west, beside which hikers enter a forest road.1 None of the sources read confirms whether the tower can be climbed today, so check with the Forest Service before going up.

  1. Journey through history in the Mark Twain National Forest, Salem News, https://www.thesalemnewsonline.com/news/local_news/article_3c24d5d4-1e04-11ef-8a02-8ff27c5ec157.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Marcoot Lookout Station, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mo/marcoot-lookout-station/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Marcoot, Forest Lookouts (newspaper clippings and a survey description transcribed), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/marcoot.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mark Twain National Forest - Marcoot Fire Lookout Tower, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/places/mark-twain-national-forest-marcoot-fire-lookout-tower.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Marcoot Lookout Station
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Marcoot Lookout Station
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Marcoot Lookout Station
Photo: 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, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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: type, height, 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

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