FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Jackson County, Ohio

Keystone

A 1942 Aermotor steel fire tower from Jackson County, Ohio, donated and rebuilt in 2023 at Scioto Grove Metro Park, where it is now climbable.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Scioto Grove Metro Park

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Open to the public during daylight hours at its current site, Scioto Grove Metro Park; the original Jackson County site was on private land and reachable only with the owner's permission before the 2023 move.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
111 steps to the lookout cab floor, inside Scioto Grove Metro Park, Grove City, Ohio
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor Windmill Co. galvanized-steel tower with an internal staircase (the costliest of Aermotor's three climb styles)The design: Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1942
Height
82 ft (25.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks (current, since 2023)
Land
Unknown
Location
Jackson County, Ohio
Coordinates
38.98169, −82.47979
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-oh-keystone

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.0 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. 1942 BuiltErected in Jackson County, Ohio by the Aermotor Windmill Company as a U.S. Forest Service fire tower with an internal staircaseSource: metroparks.net
  2. No record between 1942 and 2019
  3. 2019 EventNHLR visit report found it abandoned, vandalized, with the first flight of stairs removed; access only through private propertySource: nhlr.org
  4. 2023 EventPublic grand opening at Scioto Grove Metro Park on August 15, 2023Source: columbusnavigator.com
  5. 2023 MovedTaylor family donated the tower; dismantled, trucked ~75 miles in three sections, re-galvanized, and rebuilt at Scioto Grove Metro Park (Franklin County) for about $140,000Source: metroparks.net
  6. 2023 RestoredNew stair treads and windows, safety fencing, and a rebuilt lookout cab added during the rebuildSources: columbusnavigator.com, metroparks.net
  7. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Scioto Grove Metro Park.Source: FFLA
  8. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. When it came down is not recorded.

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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Keystone Fire Tower began far from where visitors can climb it today. It went up in Jackson County, in southeastern Ohio, in 1942, built by the Aermotor Windmill Company of Chicago, which supplied the U.S. Forest Service with galvanized-steel fire towers.1 Aermotor sold three styles of climb — outside ladder, inside ladder, or inside staircase — and Keystone was built as the costliest kind, with a full internal staircase rather than a ladder.1 The National Historic Lookout Register, which catalogued the tower in 2014 at its original site, measured it at 45 feet;2 a Metro Parks account written after the move instead gives 82 feet from the ground to the lookout cab's floor, a discrepancy the sources don't resolve.1

By 2019 the tower stood abandoned on private land. A visitor who filed a report with the Register that year found the first flight of stairs removed and the site "heavily vandalized by locals," reachable only by asking the landowner's permission.2

In 2023 the landowning Taylor family donated the structure to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks.1 The park system hired a contractor to dismantle it, truck it in three sections roughly 75 miles, re-galvanize the steel, and rebuild it at Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City — work that cost about $140,000.1 Crews added safety fencing, a rebuilt lookout cab, and new stair treads and windows.3,1 The rebuilt tower opened to the public on August 15, 2023.3

Today anyone can climb its 111 steps during daylight hours.1 From the top, the view takes in Scioto Grove's stretch of the Scioto River and, about seven miles off, the Columbus skyline.1 One account of the move called it a fitting coincidence: the tower arrived in central Ohio almost exactly 82 years after it first went up in Jackson County.1

  1. Virginia Gordon, "Are you bold enough to climb the fire tower?", Metro Parks (Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks), https://www.metroparks.net/blog/are-you-bold-enough-to-climb-the-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Keystone Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/oh/keystone-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Chelsea Wiley, "The New Fire Tower At Scioto Grove Offers Stunning Views", Columbus Navigator, https://www.columbusnavigator.com/scioto-grove-metro-park-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.