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Fire lookout · Sumter County, South Carolina

Cassatt Tower

1936 CCC-erected tower at Cassatt State Forest, Kershaw County; now rebuilt at 40 ft on Billy McIntosh's private land in Sumter County after a late-1990s sale.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned by Billy McIntosh; the Register describes it as a hunting and wildlife observation spot, but no public access is described

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 with 7'x7' steel cab; formerly 100', reconstructed to 40'The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
121 ft (37 m)
Agency
Built for the South Carolina Forestry Commission; owned by Billy McIntosh per NHLR
Land
Unknown
Location
Sumter County, South Carolina
Coordinates
33.90783, −80.54698
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-cassatt-2

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 2.9 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. 1936 BuiltErected by Civilian Conservation Corps enlistees at Cassatt State Forest, Kershaw CountySources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1936 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 969, SC 22Source: 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 Cassatt Tower went up in 1936 as a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, erected by Civilian Conservation Corps enlistees stationed at the Cassatt State Forest in Kershaw County.1 The Register gives the same 1936 date and the same Aermotor model.2

The Forest Lookouts site quotes a 1947 study of South Carolina's natural resources, which says the state forest was deeded to the Commission in 1935 and that a fire lookout tower was located there.1 We found no names of anyone who staffed this tower, and no fires it is recorded to have watched.

The Commission ended its fire tower network on October 1, 1993.3 The Register says Billy McIntosh bought the tower from the Commission in the late 1990s, moved it to Sumter County, and re-erected it on his property.2 It also says the tower was formerly 100 feet tall and was reconstructed at 40 feet on its original concrete footings.2 The Forest Lookouts site gives the sale only as a year in the 1990s, marked with question marks, and says it was moved to a private location.1 Columbia Metropolitan Magazine dates McIntosh's purchase to the early 2000s, so the sources disagree on the year.4

Today the Register describes the tower as a hunting and wildlife observation spot.2 The magazine says McIntosh uses his towers to manage and hunt wild game, and that two of his four towers stand at 40 feet.4 It does not say which two, but the Register's 40-foot figure matches this tower. No public access is described, so please do not climb it without the owner's permission.

  1. Cassatt, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/cassatt.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cassatt Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/cassatt-tower/ (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 Cassatt 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.