Fire lookout · Burlington County, New Jersey
Lebanon Station Fire Tower
A 1950 New Jersey Forest Fire Service tower of 80 feet in Brendan Byrne State Forest, built to replace an earlier Four Mile tripod and still listed as in active service.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
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. Owned, manned and maintained by the NJFFS as a working observation post; no source read describes public access to the cab.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor tower with a 7x7-foot metal cab, painted red and whiteThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1950
- Height
- 79 ft (24.0 m)
- Elevation
- 136 ft (42 m)
- Agency
- New Jersey Forest Fire Service
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Burlington County, New Jersey
- Coordinates
- 39.89218, −74.58133
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-nj-lebanon
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 3.5 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
- 1910 EventNJFFS erected the Four Mile Tower, a wooden tripod; Wikipedia says the Lebanon Station replaced it (no replacement year given)Source: en.wikipedia.org
- No record between 1910 and 1950
- 1950 BuiltBuilt 1950 per the NHLR register pageSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1950 and 2004
- 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 3, 2004Source: nhlr.org
- 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Lebanon Station fire tower stands in Brendan Byrne State Forest in Burlington County, New Jersey.1,2 The register dates the tower to 1950 and describes an 80-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.3 A January 2007 visit report in the register notes that it had been freshly painted in red and white.3
The tower had a predecessor. Wikipedia's list of state towers says the service erected a simple wooden tripod called the Four Mile Tower in 1910, and that the Lebanon Station replaced it.1 The register says the Lebanon tower succeeded the Four Mile lookout, which had overlooked the fire-prone pinelands.3
According to the register, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service owns, staffs and maintains the tower, which falls within its Division B.3 It was entered on the National Historic Lookout Register on March 3, 2004.3 At that time the register noted the tower was 54 years old and one of the state's oldest.3
Trees later crowded the view. According to the register, in recent years a pine plantation from the Civilian Conservation Corps era grew to about 80 feet and restricted the view. A timely timber harvest opened the vista again and provided timber for various state projects. The register does not say when the harvest happened.3
The Forest Fire Service's Division B page says all of its towers are still in active service, although the same list records the Lakewood tower as decommissioned in July 2024. It also lists the Lebanon tower in Brendan Byrne State Forest.2 Nothing read for this story describes public visits to the cab, so the tower should be treated as a working state post rather than a place to climb.3,2
- 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). ↩
- Div B Fire Towers, NJFFS Section B10, https://www.sectionb10.org/firetowers (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Lebanon Station Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nj/lebanon-station-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Wikipedia: List of New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire towers (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 556 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Div B Fire Towers (NJFFS Section B10) (opens another site)
- Lebanon Station (Wikipedia (List of New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire towers)) (opens another site)
- Lebanon (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 3545900999 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.