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Fire lookout · Union County, South Carolina

Whitmire Tower

Union County, SC lookout in the Sumter National Forest; register dates it to about 1935 and Forest Service use to the 1980s; upper deck closed to visitors.

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. Upper deck closed to visitors per HikingWNC; the only visit described is a roadside stop

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Roadside stop, about 0.1 mile round trip; no tower access per HikingWNC
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1980s)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100' Aermotor LS-40 tower with 7'x7' metal cab and low hip roofThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
481 ft (147 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, South Carolina
Coordinates
34.52222, −81.59000
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-whitmire

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. 1935 BuiltRegister 'Built' field gives 1935; description says built around 1935Source: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 1980
  3. 1980 Last staffedPlaceholder for 'until the 1980s'; the register gives no exact yearSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1980 and 2013
  5. 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 27, 2013 as US 963, SC 17Source: 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 Whitmire lookout stands in the Sumter National Forest in Union County, South Carolina.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was built around 1935 as a 100-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab and a low hip roof.1

The Forest Service kept the tower in use as a lookout and dispatch center until the 1980s.1 The register does not name anyone who worked there or any fire it watched, and we did not find another source that does.1

The register added the tower in January 2013 under the numbers US 963 and SC 17.1 It gives the elevation as 481 feet, or 147 meters, says the U.S. Forest Service administers it, and names the Enoree Ranger District as a cooperator.1

We found no record of the tower being moved or torn down. A HikingWNC listing describes it as a roadside stop of about a tenth of a mile round trip, with the upper deck closed to visitors and no view from the tower.2 That listing has no date in our copy, so it may not show the tower's condition today.

The listing describes only a roadside visit, with no access to the tower.2 Please do not climb the tower while its upper deck is closed.

  1. Whitmire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/whitmire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. 012 – Whitmire Fire Tower (SC), HikingWNC, https://hikingwnc.com/012-whitmire-fire-tower-sc/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Whitmire 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, what it is built of, 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
  2. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: type, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.