Fire lookout · Benton County, Tennessee
Camden Fire Tower
Benton County, TN 80-ft Aermotor LS-40 at an active TN Forestry site; NHLR-registered 2023 and listed extant in 2014; build date and staffing not 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.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor LS-40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 579 ft (177 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Division of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Benton County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 36.06587, −88.16813
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-camden
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
- 2014 EventListed among extant Tennessee Division of Forestry towers as of March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
- 2023 Condition assessmentSite visit listed as 1/28/23 in the NHLR entry; the entry's description says the original Aermotor badge is missing but its outline is visibleSource: nhlr.org
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered February 1, 2023 as US 1718, TN 51; 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 Camden Fire Tower stands at an active Tennessee Division of Forestry site in Benton County, Tennessee.1 It is an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40.1 The LS-40 ranked among Aermotor's most popular steel designs, and the state forestry division used it heavily until the mid-1970s.2
The register lists the build date as unknown, and we found no other source that gives one.1,3 We also found no record of who staffed the tower or of any fire it watched.
The register added the tower on February 1, 2023, on the nomination of Jason Johns.1 The register lists a site visit dated January 28, 2023.1 Its description says the original Aermotor badge is gone, but its outline is still visible.1 A 2014 list of surviving state towers, published in a National Register document, includes it.2
The register gives the elevation as 579 feet (176 meters), while the Tennessee Landforms list gives 588 feet. The two sources differ by nine feet.1,3
Neither source describes public access or climbing rules for Camden. Because the tower sits at an active state forestry site, check with the Tennessee Division of Forestry before going near it.1,3
- Camden Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/camden-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Register multiple property document, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (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, 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, 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 1718 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975 (National Register multiple property document) (National Park Service, NPGallery) (opens another site)
- Camden (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.