Fire lookout · Georgetown County, South Carolina
Winyah Bay Lookout
Georgetown County, SC tower built by the SC Forestry Commission in 1937 beside US 17; register calls it presently inactive (2017); no later condition report found.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. No access information on the register or the Forest Lookouts page
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- Register places it along US 17 south of Georgetown; no visit route or climbing information found
- Staffing
- Not staffed (as of 2017-04)
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower100' Aermotor tower (model not stated)The design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1937
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 58 ft (18 m)
- Agency
- South Carolina Forestry Commission
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Georgetown County, South Carolina
- Coordinates
- 33.28350, −79.34946
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-sc-winyah-bay
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
- 1937 BuiltRegister 'Built' field gives 1937; built by the South Carolina Forestry CommissionSource: nhlr.org
- 1938 AlteredCivilian Conservation Corps repainted the living quarters at the tower site, 1938-39 (year given is the first year of the work)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1938 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2017Source: 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 Winyah Bay lookout is located along U.S. Route 17 south of Georgetown, South Carolina, in Georgetown County.1 The South Carolina Forestry Commission put up a 100-foot Aermotor tower there in 1937.1
A Forest Lookouts page says a Civilian Conservation Corps group repainted the living quarters at the tower site in 1938 and 1939, citing a state forestry report.2
We did not find any account naming the people who staffed the tower or any fire it watched. The register calls the tower presently inactive.1 It was added to the register in April 2017 and uses a photo dated January 2014.1
We found no report after the 2017 registration on whether the tower still stands. The register places it along the highway.1 It does not describe any visit or climbing access, and we would not climb it.1
- Winyah Bay Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/winyah-bay-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Winyah Bay, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/winyah-bay.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: ownership, 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 1179 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Winyah Bay (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.