FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Pickens County, South Carolina

Issaqueena Tower

Built in 1938 by the CCC and WPA as a 100-ft Aermotor tower on the Clemson Experimental Forest; NHLR-registered in 2006, with current condition not stated.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. On the Clemson University Forest, where visitors must stay on designated roads and trails; the Issaqueena Lake Road is closed between November 1 and March 15, or as needed. Tower-specific visiting rules are not stated in the sources read.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Hiking, horseback riding and biking on designated roads and trails only; the Issaqueena Lake Road is closed between November 1 and March 15, or as needed.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 x 7 ft metal cab.The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1938
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
971 ft (296 m)
Agency
Clemson University (Clemson Experimental Forest)
Land
Unknown
Location
Pickens County, South Carolina
Coordinates
34.74198, −82.83865
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-issaqueena

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. 1934 EventWPA land reclamation on the Clemson forest lands began in 1934; fire towers and recreation facilities were among the works built.Source: clemson.edu
  2. 1938 BuiltBuilt by the CCC and WPA as a 100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 x 7 ft metal cab.Source: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1938 and 2006
  4. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 27, 2006; nominated by S. Knight Cox.Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Issaqueena Tower is on the Clemson Experimental Forest in Pickens County.1 According to the Register, the 100-foot Aermotor, with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, dates to 1938 and was put up by the CCC and WPA.1 The forest it stands in is a product of a New Deal land project around Clemson College, which bought nearly 30,000 acres of worn-out farmland and built fire towers and recreation facilities.2

The Register calls the tower and its grounds a local attraction and an illustration of modern rural living in the 1930s, a setting that also included the area's first electricity.1 It does not say who staffed the tower or for how long.1 The Register listed the tower on July 27, 2006, on a nomination from S. Knight Cox.1

The wider recreation area around Lake Issaqueena had a rough stretch early on, with vandalism and neglect, and it was used as a bombing range during World War II.3 The Register does not describe the tower's condition today, or whether it is still in use.1

Hikers, horseback riders and cyclists are limited to designated roads and trails on the forest.4 The forest rules say the Issaqueena Lake Road is closed between November 1 and March 15, or as needed.4 Whether the tower itself is open to visitors is not stated in the Register or the forest rules.1,4

  1. Issaqueena Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/issaqueena-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. History, Clemson University Forest, Clemson University, https://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/cu-forest/about/history.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. When Paths Converge, Clemson World Archive, https://clemson.world/archive/issaqueena/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Forest Rules, Clemson University Forest, Clemson University, https://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/cu-forest/visit/forest-rules.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Issaqueena 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, 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 -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) 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
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.