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Fire lookout · Marion County, Tennessee

Big Hill Fire Lookout Tower

Marion County, TN tower built around 1947 for the Division of Forestry; NRHP-listed 2021; standing, no longer continually manned, no public visiting arrangement found.

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. State-owned Division of Forestry site; the nomination describes ongoing staff use and gives no public visiting arrangement

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-39 type; sixty-foot galvanized steel truss frame with a seven-by-seven-foot observation cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1947
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
2,032 ft (619 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Marion County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.15800, −85.65540
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-big-hill

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 3.3 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. 1934 EventState of Tennessee signed a contract with G. Sherman and the heirs of A.R. Hall on September 1, 1934, for two leased parcels; a deed from them to the state of 1934 is on record (Deed Book XXX, pp. 263-265)Source: tn.gov
  2. 1947 BuiltConstructed ca. 1947 by the Tennessee Division of Forestry. The nomination calls 1947 an estimate and says Division documents suggest 1948Source: tn.gov
  3. No record between 1947 and 1975
  4. 1975 Last staffedConstantly manned in the high fire season until the 1970s; no longer continually manned after the mid-1970s (year is approximate)Source: tn.gov
  5. No record between 1975 and 2010
  6. 2010 AlteredRadio tower and equipment building added nearby inside a barbed-wire fence (ca. 2010 per nomination); two modern radio antennae added to the tower (the nomination does not date the antennae)Source: tn.gov
  7. 2021 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 28, 2021Source: tn.gov
  8. 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 Big Hill Fire Lookout Tower stands on the Cumberland Plateau in Marion County, at an elevation of 2,032 feet.1 In 1934 the state signed a contract with G. Sherman and the heirs of A.R. Hall for the tower site, and a deed from them to the state that year is on record.1 The Tennessee Division of Forestry put the tower up around 1947 as part of its fire management program.1

The date is an estimate.1 The nomination notes that Division files point to 1948, but the tower shows on a 1947 USGS map and was not on the 1936 one.1 The nomination says it appears to be an Aermotor MC-39 type, and a National Register study of the state's towers lists it in that group.1,2 Its four-sided steel frame is sixty feet tall, and a seven-by-seven-foot observation cab sits on top.1

The tower was staffed constantly through the high fire season until the 1970s.1 After the mid-1970s, forestry staff came to rely more on spotter planes and 911 reports, and the tower was no longer continually manned.1 Staff still climb it occasionally to spot fires when needed.1 We found no named fire that the tower is recorded as spotting.

The tower has not been moved since it went up, and it keeps its original design features.1 The changes are small: the wooden stair treads were replaced in kind, and two modern radio antennas were added.1 A radio tower and equipment building sit nearby, both inside a barbed-wire fence.1 Three of the five towers that once stood in Marion County still stand, and Big Hill is one of them.1

The National Register listed the tower on June 28, 2021.1 The state owns the land, and the nomination describes ongoing forestry use but no public visiting arrangement.1 Tennessee Landforms advises against climbing these towers, because steps are often missing or decayed.3 Please do not climb it, and ask the Division of Forestry before going near it. We found no rental or lodging use for the tower.

  1. Big Hill Fire Lookout Tower, National Register of Historic Places nomination, Tennessee Historical Commission, https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/historicalcommission/archive/national-register/2021-nr-listings/thc_nr_big-hill-tower_nomination.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Register multiple property documentation form, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, status, 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
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.