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Fire lookout · McCormick County, South Carolina

Woodlawn Lookout

Forest Service lookout in McCormick County, SC, built May 1936 by a CCC camp; state forestry staff manned it from 1974-75; a 2020 visit found the lower stairs gone and the cab damaged.

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 not open to visitors (HikingWNC); lower staircase removed and base fence mostly down (2020 Register visit report); no official closure notice found

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
HikingWNC lists a roadside stop of 0.1 miles round trip with no tower access
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100' LS-40 Aermotor tower with 7'x7' galvanized sheet metal cab with hip roofThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
534 ft (163 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
McCormick County, South Carolina
Coordinates
33.62361, −82.12667
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sc-woodlawn

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 2.8 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. 1936 BuiltConstructed May 1936 as the fourth tower in the Long Cane Division, built by the Bradley CCC camp (Register); work reported started in May 1936 (Index-Journal item quoted by Forest Lookouts)Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1936 and 1974
  3. 1974 StaffedState Forestry Commission personnel began manning the tower in the 1974-75 season, per a state forestry report quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1974 and 2009
  5. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 17, 2009 as US 838, SC 8; nominated by Ron StaffordSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2020 Condition assessmentVisit report dated September 16, 2020: bottom staircase removed, windows broken, base fence mostly pulled downSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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 Woodlawn Lookout stands in the Sumter National Forest in McCormick County, South Carolina. The National Historic Lookout Register also calls it the Clarks Hill Lookout.1

Work began in May 1936. An Index-Journal item from that spring, quoted by Forest Lookouts, said the tower was going up on the Daniel McKie tract, one-half mile southeast of Woodlawn, and would help the Forest Service spot and control fires in the lower end of the district.2 The Forest Service's history of the district says the Civilian Conservation Corps built firetowers on the forest.3 The Register credits the Bradley CCC camp with building this one, the fourth tower in the Long Cane Division.1

The Register describes a 100-foot LS-40 Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot galvanized cab and a hip roof, built in May 1936.1 It was one of several main stations the Forest Service used to spot fires in its early years.1

The Register says the Forest Service used it actively until the 1980s.1 Forest Lookouts quotes a state forestry report saying that State Forestry Commission personnel began manning it in the 1974 to 1975 season.2 Those accounts do not clash outright, but neither explains how the work was divided. The sources we read name no particular fire it watched.

The Register's most recent visit report, dated September 16, 2020, called it the worst of three towers visited that day.1 The writer found the bottom staircase removed, a makeshift strap ladder on the first platform, the base fence mostly pulled down, the cab's windows broken and its outside covered in graffiti.1 The writer called the tower pretty shabby but said its structure looked ok.1 The tower likely needs a check for structural stability, and several wooden steps higher up are missing.1 We found no later report.

We also found no official notice about the tower's current status. HikingWNC says the upper deck is not open and describes a roadside stop of about 0.1 miles round trip.4 With the lower stairs gone and the upper deck closed to climbers, this is not a tower to climb.

  1. Woodlawn Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sc/woodlawn-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Woodlawn, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/woodlawn1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. History of the Enoree and Long Cane Ranger Districts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/francismarionsumter/natural-resources/arch-cultural/history-enoree-and-long-cane-ranger (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. 017 – Woodlawn Lookout Tower (SC), HikingWNC, https://hikingwnc.com/017-woodlawn-lookout-tower-sc/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Woodlawn Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Woodlawn Lookout
Photo: Ron Stafford, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Woodlawn Lookout
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, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: type, 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. 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

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