Fire lookout · Richland County, South Carolina
Weddell Tower
Richland County, SC tower built by the CCC in 1936 for Columbia's sesquicentennial; SC Forestry Commission operated it until 1993; NHLR-registered 2012; a park friends post says it is no longer safe to climb.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Restricted access
Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Inside a public state park; a Friends of Sesqui post says the tower is no longer safe to climb. No official closure notice found; restricted level is our inference from that post.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower90' Aermotor LS-40 steel tower, 7'x7' cab, on a prehistoric sand duneThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1936
- Height
- 90 ft (27.4 m)
- Elevation
- 452 ft (138 m)
- Agency
- SC Dept. of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SC Forestry Commission operated the tower until 1993)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Richland County, South Carolina
- Coordinates
- 34.09750, −80.91028
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-sc-weddell
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
- 1936 BuiltBuilt by the CCC to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Columbia's foundingSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1936 and 1993
- 1993 Last staffedSC Forestry Commission operated the tower until 1993Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1993 and 2012
- 2012 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 2, 2012 as US 950, SC 11; nominated by Mike Finch, Jr.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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Weddell Tower is a fire lookout inside Sesquicentennial State Park in Richland County, South Carolina.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1936 to mark Columbia's sesquicentennial, 150 years after the city was founded in 1786.1 The tower is 90 feet tall, an Aermotor LS-40 built of steel, and its cab measures 7 by 7 feet.1 It stands on a prehistoric sand dune.1
The park itself came out of the same celebration.2 The Sesquicentennial Commission acquired 1,445 acres in 1937, paid for with surplus money, and Company #4469 of the Civilian Conservation Corps was tasked with developing the park.2 The Register's 1936 build date is a year earlier than that land purchase, and we could not reconcile the two.1,2
The South Carolina Forestry Commission operated the tower until 1993.1 The Register does not name the people who staffed it or any fire it watched, and we found no other account of either.1 The tower later went to the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, which now administers it.1
The Register lists the tower as registered on October 2, 2012, as US 950, SC 11, on the nomination of Mike Finch, Jr.1 The page describes the tower in the present tense.1 A post from the Friends of Sesqui State Park says the tower is no longer safe to climb, and we found no official closure notice.3
- Weddell Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/weddell-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Sesquicentennial State Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesquicentennial_State_Park (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Friends of Sesqui State Park, Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfSesqui/posts/did-you-know-you-can-see-downtown-cola-from-the-top-of-sesqui-mountain-%EF%B8%8F-warning/1370167928479440/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- 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 950 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Sesquicentennial State Park (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- Facebook post: Did you know you can see downtown Cola from the top of Sesqui mountain? (Friends of Sesqui State Park) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.