Fire lookout · Attala County, Mississippi
Attala (Kosciusko) Lookout Tower
Also known as Kosciusko
Attala County, MS tower with an unknown build date; a 1948 fire-danger station was added, and NHLR says the Mississippi Forestry Commission has vacated the site.
- 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
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-ft Aermotor LS-40 with straight internal staircaseThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 548 ft (167 m)
- Agency
- Mississippi Forestry Commission
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Attala County, Mississippi
- Coordinates
- 33.07592, −89.62155
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ms-attala-kosciusko
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 3.2 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
- 1948 AlteredFire-danger rating station built at the tower by the Mississippi Forestry Commission (Clarion-Ledger, as quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1948 and 2022
- 2022 Condition assessmentNHLR site visit July 9, 2022; site vacated by the MFCSource: nhlr.org
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 10, 2022 as US 1663, MS 28Source: nhlr.org
- 2023 Condition assessmentListed as standing (Google Earth) on Forest Lookouts listSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.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.
The Attala (Kosciusko) Lookout Tower is in Attala County, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Forestry Commission administers it.1 The Register describes a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 with a straight internal staircase and lists the build year as unknown.1
The tower's history is better documented from the late 1940s. In December 1948 a Clarion-Ledger report said the Mississippi Forestry Commission was building the first fire-danger rating station in central Mississippi at the Kosciusko lookout tower.2 The station was meant to let tower staff work out each day's fire danger from wind speed and humidity.2
The Register records a site visit on July 9, 2022, and says the Forestry Commission has vacated the site.1 The Register added the tower to its listing on July 10, 2022.1
A lookout history site's 2023 note lists the tower as standing, based on Google Earth imagery.2 We found no later record of its condition, and no source says whether the public may visit.
Because the Forestry Commission has left the site, anyone curious should check the current owner before going near it. Do not climb or enter the tower without permission.
- Attala (Kosciusko) Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ms/attala-kosciusko-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Kosciusko (Forest Lookouts), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/kosciusko.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: type, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1663 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Kosciusko (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.