FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sumter County, South Carolina

Bennettsville Tower

100-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower built in 1938 in Marlboro County, SC; sold by the state, moved to Sumter County and re-erected on private land.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Re-erected on private property after sale by the state; no public access found.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Type unknownAermotor LS-40 steel tower, 100 ft, with 7 by 7 foot steel cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
248 ft (76 m)
Agency
South Carolina Forestry Commission (original owner)
Land
Unknown
Location
Sumter County, South Carolina
Coordinates
33.90796, −80.53415
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-bennettsville

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. 1938 BuiltBuilt near the town of Bennettsville, Marlboro County, as a 100-foot towerSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1938 and 1993
  3. 1993 ClosedSC Forestry Commission closed its fire tower system on October 1, 1993 (system-wide closure)Source: scfc.gov
  4. No record between 1993 and 2013
  5. 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered February 24, 2013Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Bennettsville tower was built in 1938 close to Bennettsville, in Marlboro County, South Carolina.1,2 It was an Aermotor LS-40, 100 feet tall and built of steel, with a 7-by-7-foot steel cab.1,2

The sources we read do not name anyone who worked this tower or any fire it watched. Across the state's tower system, fire danger set how long an operator spent in the cab.3 The South Carolina Forestry Commission shut that system down on October 1, 1993.3

The state sold the tower in the late 1990s. A private owner had it moved to Sumter County, where it was reconditioned and re-erected on private property.1,2 Forest Lookouts describes the same sale as a move to a private location.2

The register added the tower on February 24, 2013.1 The owner calls it the Mine Hill tower.1 We found no report of its condition after that date.

The tower is on private land, and we found no public access. Ask the owner before you plan any visit, and do not go onto the property without permission.2

  1. Bennettsville Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/bennettsville-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bennettsville, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bennettsville.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pictures From Our Past, South Carolina Forestry Commission, https://www.scfc.gov/about-us/history/pictures-from-our-past/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bennettsville Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, 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.