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Fire lookout · Scott County, Mississippi

Morton Lookout Tower

Tower at the entrance of Roosevelt State Park near Morton, MS: a 100 ft Aermotor LS-40 run by the Mississippi Forestry Commission, NHLR-registered July 2023, with the build date given only as 1935-1940.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Stands at the entrance of a public state park; the Register does not say whether the tower may be climbed

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Type unknown100 ft Aermotor LS-40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
609 ft (186 m)
Agency
Mississippi Forestry Commission; cooperator Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks
Land
Unknown
Location
Scott County, Mississippi
Coordinates
32.32022, −89.66694
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ms-morton

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 2.9 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. 1935 BuiltThe Register gives the build date only as sometime between 1935 and 1940; 1935 is the start of that range, not a confirmed yearSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 2023
  3. 2023 Condition assessmentRegister records a site visit on July 1, 2023Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 9, 2023 as US 1740, MS 57Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 Morton Lookout Tower stands at the entrance of Roosevelt State Park.1 The park lies just off Interstate 20, on Morton's southwest side, and is a Mississippi state park.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes the tower as a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40, administered by the Mississippi Forestry Commission, with the state's wildlife and parks department listed as a cooperator.1

The Register gives the build date only as sometime between 1935 and 1940.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps began work on the park in August 1935, and the park's opening came in April 1940.2,3 Wikipedia gives 1935 as the year the park was established, which dates the park rather than the tower.2

The National Register nomination for the park's historic district describes nine CCC-built cabins, a pavilion and some landscape features.3 It does not mention a lookout tower, so it cannot tell us who raised the tower or when.3

The Register records a site visit on July 1, 2023, which suggests the tower was still standing then.1 We found no record of a fire it watched and no staffing history, so neither appears here. The Register does not say whether the tower may be climbed. Ask park staff before going near it, and do not climb it.1

  1. Morton Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ms/morton-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Roosevelt State Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_State_Park (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Roosevelt State Park Historic District, National Register of Historic Places nomination (NRHP 97001436), https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/97001436_text (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Morton Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.