Fire lookout · McNairy County, Tennessee
Big Hill Pond Lookout Tower
70-foot Aermotor observation tower in Big Hill Pond State Park, McNairy County, TN; build date unknown, listed as surviving in 2014, and open to climb by park visitors.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Inside Big Hill Pond State Park; described as climbable by Tennessee Magazine and the Tennessee Hiking Club
- Can you climb it?
- Yes
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Reached along the Turkey Call and Tuscumbia trails in the park; Tennessee Hiking Club lists a route of 4.3 miles
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower70ft Aermotor Observation towerThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 70 ft (21.3 m)
- Elevation
- 601 ft (183 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee State Parks
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- McNairy County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 35.05055, −88.74000
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-big-hill-pond
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
- 2014 EventListed as extant in the National Register study of Tennessee Division of Forestry fire towers, as of March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 30, 2022 as US 1710, TN 43; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: 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 Big Hill Pond Lookout Tower stands inside Big Hill Pond State Park in McNairy County, Tennessee, at 601 feet (183 meters).1 The Register describes it as a 70-foot Aermotor observation tower.1
The Register lists the build date as unknown.1 A National Register study of Tennessee Division of Forestry fire lookout towers lists a Big Hill Pond tower in McNairy County among the towers still standing on March 26, 2014.2 We found no record of who built it, who staffed it, or any fire it watched.
A Tennessee lookout-tower list also includes a Big Hill Pond tower in McNairy County at 601 feet.3 The Register shows a registration date of December 30, 2022, with Jason Johns as nominator. It names Tennessee State Parks as the administrator.1
Visitors can climb it. Tennessee Magazine says the tower can be reached along the Turkey Call and Tuscumbia trails.4 The Tennessee Hiking Club puts the route at 4.3 miles and says the stairs pay off with a view over the Tuscumbia River bottomlands.5 Both guides describe it as open to climb, but conditions can change, so check with the park before you go.
- Big Hill Pond Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/big-hill-pond-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Register of Historic Places multiple property document, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tranquility and Treks, Tennessee Magazine, https://www.tnmagazine.org/tranquility-and-treks/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Big Hill Pond Lookout Tower, Tennessee Hiking Club, https://www.tnhiking.club/trails/big-hill-pond-tower (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
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN (opens another site) Gave us: links tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan) · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, county, elevation, NGS/GFC/BLL register cross-references, status where given). · 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 1710 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975 (National Register multiple property document) (National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places) (opens another site)
- Tranquility and Treks (Tennessee Magazine) (opens another site)
- Big Hill Pond Lookout Tower (Tennessee Hiking Club) (opens another site)
- Big Hill Pond (tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan)) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.