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Fire lookout · McCurtain County, Oklahoma

Carnasaw Lookout

Also known as Carnasaw Mountain

Oklahoma's first fire tower (1926); its 1974 Aermotor replacement was halted by a footings error, leaving the cab on a 75-foot deck instead of the planned 100 feet.

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 towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Wood
Built
1926
Height
75 ft (22.9 m)
Elevation
1,005 ft (306 m)
Agency
Oklahoma Forestry Services
Land
Unknown
Location
McCurtain County, Oklahoma
Coordinates
34.14432, −94.63807
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ok-carnasaw

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 3.0 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. 1926 BuiltOriginal wood tower erected; first fire lookout tower in Oklahoma.Sources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1937 RebuiltOriginal tower replaced with a 100-foot wood tower.Sources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1937 and 1974
  4. 1974 DestroyedThe 1937 wood tower was destroyed in a storm. (Only NHLR mentions the cause; the Forestry Service page just notes the 1974 steel tower's construction.)Source: nhlr.org
  5. 1974 RebuiltReplaced with a steel Aermotor tower; construction was meant to reach 100 feet but a measuring error at the footings halted it at 75 feet, where a deck and the 7x7-foot cab were placed.Sources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1974 and 1997
  7. 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, September 16, 1997, as US 238 / OK 1, nominated by Patrick McDowell of Oklahoma Forestry Services.Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Carnasaw Lookout sits in McCurtain County, in far southeastern Oklahoma's Ouachita Mountains country. Oklahoma Forestry Services put up a wood tower here in 1926, the first fire lookout tower built in the state, though no source describes exactly what that first structure looked like.1,2 In 1937 crews replaced it with a taller, 100-foot wood tower.1,2

That second tower came down in a storm in 1974.1 The agency's replacement was meant to be another 100-foot structure — this time steel, an Aermotor design with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab. The build ran into trouble partway up: a measuring mistake in the footings meant the tower couldn't safely continue past 75 feet. Rather than start over, the crew stopped there, framed a deck at that height, and set the cab on it, which is why Carnasaw's silhouette looks different from a standard Aermotor today.1,2

Carnasaw was entered on the National Historic Lookout Register on September 16, 1997, as US 238 / OK 1, nominated by Patrick McDowell of Oklahoma Forestry Services.1 The register's page — last updated in 2016 — describes it as still in active service, though that status has not been independently checked since.1

Beyond the register entries, little has surfaced here about who staffed the tower over the years, what fires it is credited with spotting, or whether the public can visit today — both cached sources are short lookout-register summaries rather than fuller histories, so those parts of Carnasaw's story remain unknown.1,2

  1. Carnasaw Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ok/carnasaw-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Carnasaw Mountain, Oklahoma Lookouts — McCurtain County — Oklahoma Forestry Service, centraluslookouts.weebly.com, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/carnasaw.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Carnasaw Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: design, height, 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
  3. 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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