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Fire lookout · Sumter County, South Carolina

Bonneau Tower

1938 South Carolina Forestry Commission tower near Bonneau, Berkeley County; sold to Billy McIntosh and re-erected on private land in Sumter County; no public access described.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned by Billy McIntosh; the sources describe hunting use by the owner and his guests, but no public access

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 unknown100' Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with 7'x7' steel cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
236 ft (72 m)
Agency
Built for the South Carolina Forestry Commission; owned by Billy McIntosh per NHLR
Land
Unknown
Location
Sumter County, South Carolina
Coordinates
33.93286, −80.52338
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-bonneau

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 3.1 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 for the SC Forestry Commission and erected near Bonneau, Berkeley CountySources: 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; not specific to this tower)Source: scfc.gov
  4. No record between 1993 and 2013
  5. 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered February 24, 2013 as US 968, SC 21Source: 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 Bonneau Tower was built in 1938 for the South Carolina Forestry Commission and first stood near the town of Bonneau in Berkeley County.1,2 It was a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1,2

The Commission staffed its towers with operators whose hours in the cab depended on how dangerous the fire weather was.3 We found no names of anyone who worked this tower, and no fires it is recorded to have spotted.

The Commission ended its fire tower network on October 1, 1993.3 The tower's own history after that is less clear. The Register says Billy McIntosh bought it from the Commission in the late 1990s and moved it to Sumter County, where it was reconditioned and re-erected on his property.1 The Forest Lookouts site gives the sale only as a year in the 1990s, marked with question marks, and says the tower was moved to a private location.2 Columbia Metropolitan Magazine dates McIntosh's purchase to the early 2000s, so the sources disagree on the year.4

The Register dates its listing to February 24, 2013.1 It notes the view across the Wateree River basin to the west.1

Today the tower stands on private land owned by Billy McIntosh, and we found no public access.1 The magazine, dated June 2018, says that in the 20 years before then, several deer, hogs, and coyotes were harvested from the cab of his towers, "either by him or his guests."4 It also says he owns four towers, two at 40 feet and two at their original 110 feet, but it does not say which one is Bonneau. The Register gives this tower as 100 feet.1,4 Please do not climb it without the owner's permission.

  1. Bonneau Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/bonneau-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bonneau, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bonneau.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). ↩
  4. A Bird's Eye View, Columbia Metropolitan Magazine, https://columbiametro.com/article/a-birds-eye-view/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bonneau Tower
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, 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, status, 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.