Fire lookout · Jackson County, Ohio
McCune Ridge Tower Site
Also known as McCune (Limerick), Limerick
Jackson County, OH tower erected in 1934 with federal money and CCC labor, listed as McCune Ridge or Limerick; listed as gone, and sources disagree on agency and township.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone on the Ohio list of the Forest Fire Lookout Association
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerAluminum-finished tower about 20 feet taller than the one on the Scioto trail, per a 1934 newspaper report
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 980 ft (299 m)
- Agency
- State department of forestry, built with federal funds and CCC labor (1934 report); the Forest Lookouts page lists Wayne National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Jackson County, Ohio
- Coordinates
- 39.10000, −82.73628
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-oh-mccune-ridge
View from the cab
What the lookout saw from its 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.
This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.
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
- 1934 BuiltErected by August 1934, per a Chillicothe Gazette report of August 15, 1934; federal funds and CCC camp laborSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1934 First staffedAllen Weese named in October 1934 as observer for the new tower near Limerick; the tower was to be occupied by a fire warden in spring and fallSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1935 EventA Camp Stoney Creek enrollee was hurt cutting brush near the Limerick fire tower (Portsmouth Times, May 24, 1935)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1935 and 2014
- 2014 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 3, 2014 as US 1567, OH 13Source: firetower.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The McCune Ridge tower site is in Jackson County, Ohio, at an elevation of 980 feet (299 m).1 It was registered as US 1567, OH 13 on September 3, 2014.1
In August 1934 the Chillicothe Gazette reported that a forestry tower had gone up on McCune Ridge.2 Associate State Forester B. F. Leete announced it as part of a forestry department plan to place fire towers about 15 miles apart across southern Ohio's forests.2 The new tower stood 20 feet taller than the one on the Scioto trail and had an aluminum finish.2 Federal money paid for the work, and labor came from CCC camps under Henry B. Sherman's supervision.2
A fire warden was to staff the tower in spring and fall.2 In October 1934 the Gazette named Allen Weese as the observer for the new tower near Limerick.2
A May 1935 Portsmouth Times report describes an enrollee from Camp Stoney Creek who was hurt while cutting brush near the Limerick fire tower in Liberty Township.3 Wikipedia places the community of Limerick in Jackson Township, which does not match that report.4
The Forest Lookouts page lists the agency as Wayne National Forest, yet the 1934 report credits the state forestry department and federal funds.2 Wikipedia says the national forest was originally established in 1935, after the tower went up.5
The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Ohio list marks the tower as gone.6
No source describes what, if anything, remains on the ridge today, or whether it is open to visitors.
- McCune Ridge Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/oh/mccune-ridge-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- McCune Ridge, Forest Lookouts (quoting the Chillicothe Gazette, 1934), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/mccune-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Limerick, Forest Lookouts (quoting the Portsmouth Times, May 24, 1935), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/limerick.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Limerick, Ohio, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick,_Ohio (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Wayne National Forest, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_National_Forest (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Ohio Fire Lookout Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/oh/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: agency, ownership, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1567 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- McCune Ridge (quoting the Chillicothe Gazette, 1934) (Forest Lookouts) (opens another site)
- Limerick, Ohio (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- Wayne National Forest (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- FFLA Ohio lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Limerick (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.