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Fire lookout · Atlantic County, New Jersey

McKeetown Fire Tower

Built by Atlantic City in 1917 near McKee City and reported as South Jersey's first permanent fire lookout; the register says it reached 100 feet after a 1946 addition.

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 towerAermotor tower with a 7x7-foot metal cab, raised to 100 feet by a 20-foot addition in 1946 (per NHLR)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1917
Height
98 ft (30.0 m)
Elevation
75 ft (23 m)
Agency
New Jersey Forest Fire Service
Land
State land
Location
Atlantic County, New Jersey
Coordinates
39.43840, −74.61732
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nj-mckeetown

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

  1. 1916 EventState Fire Warden selected a site on the Mays Landing road near McKee City; the city was to pay for the towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1917 BuiltAtlantic City watch tower near its watershed; 1917 newspapers give 60 to 65 feet; the register calls it wooden and iron-braced, built by the coast resort water departmentSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1917 First staffedState report calls it the first permanent Forest Fire Lookout in South JerseySource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1918 StaffedManned throughout the 1917-18 season, per a later state annual reportSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1924 RebuiltRegister says the state built an 80-foot Aermotor tower; no second source foundSource: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1924 and 1946
  7. 1946 AlteredA 20-foot addition raised the tower to 100 feet, per the registerSource: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 1946 and 1997
  9. 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 15, 1997Source: nhlr.org
  10. 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.

The McKeetown fire tower stands just west of Atlantic City, in Atlantic County, New Jersey.1 Its story begins with the city rather than the state. In June 1916 the State Fire Warden chose a site on the Mays Landing road near McKee City, and Atlantic City agreed to pay for the tower.2 The aim was to guard the county forests and, through them, the city's water supply.2

The first structure was a skeleton frame.2 Newspapers in January 1917 described it as sixty feet tall, with an enclosed room at the top for a watchman supplied by the state.2 A June 1917 article gave its height as sixty-five feet.2 The register describes the first tower as wooden with iron bracing, and says the coast resort's water department built it in 1917.1 A 1917 state annual report credited Atlantic City with creating South Jersey's first permanent lookout.2 A later report said it had been manned throughout the 1917 to 1918 season.2

The register then tells a second story. It says the state built an 80-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab in 1924, and that a 20-foot addition in 1946 raised it to 100 feet.1 The Forest Lookouts history page reprints the 1916 to 1919 accounts but mentions neither the 1924 tower nor the 1946 addition.2 The sources do not settle how the 1917 tower and the 1924 state tower relate.1,2

Wikipedia's list gives the tower a height of 100 feet (30 m) and an elevation of 75 feet.3 It places the tower in Egg Harbor Township, while the register puts it just west of Atlantic City.3,1 The list also counts it among the towers in active service.3 The register records its entry on the National Historic Lookout Register on December 15, 1997.1

No source read for this story says who staffs the tower now or whether the public may visit it. Treat it as a working state lookout, not a place to climb.1,3

  1. McKeetown Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nj/mckeetown-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. McKeetown - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/mckeetown.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 McKeetown Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
McKeetown Station
McKeetown StationPhoto: Wikimedia Commons, via Wikipedia · See Wikimedia Commons file page (varies per photo) · 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, photos, 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, 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

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