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Fire lookout · Cape May County, New Jersey

Belleplain Fire Tower

Cape May County state forest tower first built in 1921 or 1922 as a 60-ft steel lookout, raised by 40 ft in the 1930s, still in active service.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Active fire-service tower on state forest land. No public visiting rule found in the sources checked.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-ft Aermotor steel tower with 7'x7' metal cab; original 60-ft tower with a 40-ft section added in the 1930sThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
98 ft (30.0 m)
Elevation
56 ft (17 m)
Agency
New Jersey Forest Fire Service
Land
State land
Location
Cape May County, New Jersey
Coordinates
39.28393, −74.84913
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nj-belleplain

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. 1921 BuiltRegister date; the 1922-23 annual report gives 1922 instead (see resolved_conflicts)Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1922 First staffedStation opened for service April 1 per the 1922-23 annual reportSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1926 StaffedSeasonal operation; closed up for the winter months (press note dated December 20, 1926)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1926 and 1966
  5. 1966 MovedState bid notice to remove and relocate the tower and erect a 40-ft extension; completion not confirmedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1966 and 1997
  7. 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 15, 1997 as US 245, NJ 7Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Belleplain Fire Tower stands in Belleplain State Forest, in Cape May County, New Jersey.1 Its first date is disputed.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was built in 1921 as a 60-foot tower.1 A state annual report for 1922-23, as reproduced on a lookout history site, says a 60-foot steel tower was erected about a mile north of Belle Plain in 1922 and opened for service on April 1.2 The sources we checked do not settle the year.1,2

Surrounding trees soon overtook the lookout, and in the 1930s a 40-foot section was added.1 The register gives the tower's height as 100 feet, an Aermotor steel structure with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, and says it is still in use.1 A Wikipedia list of the state's towers gives the site an elevation of 56 feet (17 m).3

The early record suggests a seasonal post.2 A December 1926 press note said the tower was shut for the winter.2

In 1966 the state sought bids to relocate the existing tower and put up a new 40-foot extension.2 That notice shows a plan rather than a finished job, and the register does not mention any move.1,2 It is unclear whether that extension was the same work as the 1930s section.1,2

Today the register lists the tower as administered by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.1 We found no source saying whether the public may visit.1,2,3 Since it remains an active fire tower on state land, the safe course is to stay off it unless the agency invites you up.1

  1. Belleplain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nj/belleplain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Belleplain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/belleplain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. List of New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire towers, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Jersey_Forest_Fire_Service_fire_towers (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Belleplain Fire 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, 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. Wikipedia: List of New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire towers Gave us: height, ownership, links Wikipedia (NJFFS fire tower list) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikipedia). Facts only (register numbers, elevation, height, division, coordinates); article prose/notes not reproduced. Photos are Wikimedia Commons files, each with its own licence on its file page. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. 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
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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.