FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Stone County, Mississippi

Airey Lookout Tower

Stone County, MS tower on the De Soto National Forest, built by a CCC company in 1934 per NHLR, registered 2003, on standby for fire detection; height and cab sources disagree.

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
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-ft Aermotor LS-40 tower with metal cab per NHLR; a 1943 Coast and Geodetic Survey description gives 110 ft steel tower with glass-enclosed cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
202 ft (62 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Stone County, Mississippi
Coordinates
30.68935, −89.06392
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ms-airey

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 3.0 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 BuiltConstructed by a CCC company with enrollees from New Jersey (NHLR)Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1936 EventBiloxi Ranger District Lookout Club organizing meeting held at the tower (Biloxi Daily Herald, as quoted)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1943 Condition assessmentCoast and Geodetic Survey station description, reproduced on a National Geodetic Survey page: 110 ft steel tower with glass-enclosed cabSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1943 and 2003
  5. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2003Source: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 2003 and 2023
  7. 2023 Condition assessmentListed as standing (Google Earth) on Forest Lookouts listSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  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 Airey Fire Tower stands at the Airey Work Center on the De Soto National Forest in Stone County, Mississippi, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The Register says a Civilian Conservation Corps company with enrollees from New Jersey constructed the tower in 1934.1

The Register describes a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with a metal cab.1 A 1943 Coast and Geodetic Survey description, reproduced on a National Geodetic Survey page, gives different figures: a four-legged steel structure 110 feet high with a glass-enclosed cab.2 We could not settle which account is right, so the story reports both.

The Register also lists a radio relay use, and says the tower is on standby for fire detection.1

In December 1936 the new Biloxi Ranger District Lookout Club held its organizing meeting at the tower, according to a Biloxi Daily Herald report quoted on a lookout history site.2

The Register added the tower to its listing on July 24, 2003.1 The lookout history site lists the tower as standing in 2023, based on Google Earth imagery.2

Neither source we read gives public access rules, so check with the De Soto Ranger District before going near the tower, and do not climb it without permission.

  1. Airey Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ms/airey-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Airey (Forest Lookouts), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/airey.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Airey Lookout Tower
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, type, 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 -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links easternuslookouts.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, status, agency, 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.