Fire lookout · Hocking County, Ohio

Ash Cave Fire Tower

Also known as Ash Cave (Hocking)

Hocking State Forest tower built in 1934 as an 80-foot Aermotor design; restored by the Ohio Division of Forestry, not staffed, stairs open to climbers at their own risk when weather allows.

Standing
Open to the public
Verified

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. stairs open when weather allows, at climbers' own risk; a visitor account says the cab cannot be reached

Can you climb it?: Yes
Road to the top?: Unknown
Trail: parking north of the tower at OH-374 and Chapel Ridge Road; about 550 feet south on the Grandma Gatewood Trail
Staffing: Unknown

Facts

Status: Standing
Type: Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of: SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built: 1934
Height: 80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation: 998 ft (304 m)
Agency: Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Land: Unknown
Location: Hocking County, Ohio
Coordinates: 39.40562, −82.53098
Registers: NHLR US 699 · OH 4
This entry: VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id: us-oh-ash-cave

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 3.3 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

1934 Builtconstructed in 1934 in Hocking State Forest; 80-foot Aermotor tower with 7-by-7-foot metal cabSources: nhlr.org, hiking-ohio.com, americanbyways.com
No record between 1934 and 2007
2007 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterNational Historic Lookout Register registration date July 20, 2007Source: 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 Ash Cave Fire Tower stands in Hocking State Forest, and it was built in 1934.¹^,²^,³ It is an 80-foot Aermotor tower with a metal cab that measures 7 feet by 7 feet.¹^,²^,³ A trail guide describes a roughly two-mile round trip between the tower and Ash Cave.²

The sources we read do not name the lookouts who worked here, and none describes a notable fire at the tower. The trail guide says Ohio's fire towers had lookouts posted in them, using binoculars, maps, a radio and a telephone.² The register answers "No" to whether the tower is staffed, but it gives no date for that answer, so the answer may be out of date.¹

The Ohio Division of Forestry restored and repainted the tower through its fire tower restoration project, working with the Forest Fire Lookout Association. The register calls that work recent but does not give a date.¹

When the weather permits, people may use the stairs and take the risk themselves.² A visitor's comment on the register page says the cab cannot be reached.¹ American Byways lists the tower as open year-round.³ Parking sits north of the tower, at OH-374 and Chapel Ridge Road, and the walk south to the tower is about 550 feet along the Grandma Gatewood Trail.²

Ash Cave Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/oh/ash-cave-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Ash Cave Fire Tower: Hocking Hills Trail Guide, Hiking Ohio, https://hiking-ohio.com/ash-cave-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Ash Cave Fire Tower, American Byways, https://americanbyways.com/locations/ash-cave-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Ash Cave Fire Tower — Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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 Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 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
Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) (opens another site) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: height, access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, access, visiting details, 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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