Fire lookout · Charleston County, South Carolina
Honey Hill Lookout
Standing 100-ft LS-40 Aermotor tower in the Francis Marion NF; Forest Service used it to 1989, SC Forestry Commission staffed it to 1993, and it now sits in a camping area.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Inside the Honey Hill Recreation Area, a primitive camping area on the Francis Marion National Forest. The Forest Service says the tower is no longer in use.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- From Charleston, take US 17 north to McClellanville, turn left onto SC 45 and drive eight miles to the camp. A short camp loop circles the tower.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerLS-40 100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 x 7 ft metal cab and hip roof.The design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 46 ft (14 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service (Francis Marion National Forest)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Charleston County, South Carolina
- Coordinates
- 33.17117, −79.56194
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-sc-honey-hill
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
- 1989 EventU.S. Forest Service use of the tower ended in 1989, per the NHLR.Source: nhlr.org
- 1993 Last staffedThe South Carolina Forestry Commission staffed the tower until October 1993.Source: nhlr.org
- 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 1, 1998; nominated by Glen Stapleton, District Ranger.Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Honey Hill Lookout is a 100-foot Aermotor tower in the Francis Marion National Forest, topped by a 7-by-7-foot metal cab with a hip roof.1 The National Historic Lookout Register dates it only to the 1930s and calls it the oldest surviving tower at a single location on the forest.1 It was one of several lookouts the early Forest Service used for fixed-point fire detection.1
The Forest Service used the tower until 1989.1 The South Carolina Forestry Commission staffed it until October 1993.1
The Register says the tower is now maintained on standby status, inside a picnic area on the national forest.1 The Forest Service says the tower is no longer in use.2 The Register lists it in Charleston County, while the eastern lookouts site lists it in Berkeley County.1,3 The Register listed the lookout on December 1, 1998, on a nomination from a district ranger.1
Today the site is the Honey Hill Recreation Area, a primitive camping spot where a short camp loop circles the tower.2 It has a vault toilet, picnic tables and grills.2 Reach it by driving north on US 17 from Charleston to McClellanville, then turning left at the yellow-light junction onto SC 45 and going eight miles to the camp.2
- Honey Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/honey-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Honey Hill Recreation Area, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/francismarionsumter/recreation/honey-hill-recreation-area (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Honey Hill, Eastern U.S. Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/honey-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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 -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: links easternuslookouts.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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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 298 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Honey Hill Recreation Area (U.S. Forest Service, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests) (opens another site)
- Honey Hill (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- Satellite view (hillmap.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 357111613 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.