Fire lookout · McCurtain County, Oklahoma
Bear Mountain Lookout
McCurtain County, OK steel Aermotor tower built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, registered January 2026; no current condition or public access described in sources read.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot steel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 817 ft (249 m)
- Agency
- Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- McCurtain County, Oklahoma
- Coordinates
- 34.13799, −94.94995
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ok-bear-mountain
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 3.2 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
- 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2026; nominated by Monty GravesSource: 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Bear Mountain Lookout is in McCurtain County, Oklahoma.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes an 80-foot steel tower of Aermotor make, which the Civilian Conservation Corps put up in the 1930s. The register puts the site at 817 feet.2
The register gives no more exact date than the 1930s.2 The Oklahoma Forestry Services history supplies some context.3 The Civilian Conservation Corps let the state build more fire towers in that decade, and at one time 23 state fire towers stood within its fire protection area.3 Today, the history says, only three towers are still staffed, and the others now house radio repeaters.3 The history does not name Bear Mountain, so we cannot say how the tower fits into that picture.3
The register was entered on January 2, 2026, with a nomination by Monty Graves, who also supplied its photographs.2 The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry administers the site, according to the register.2
We found no account of who staffed the tower or of any fire it helped with. The sources we read do not describe its condition today or whether the public may visit. Ask the administering department before going near it.
- Bear Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/bear-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Bear Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ok/bear-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- OFS History, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, https://ag.ok.gov/ofs-history/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: links centraluslookouts.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, height, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1798 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- OFS History (Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry) (opens another site)
- Bear Mountain (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.