Fire lookout · Chester County, Tennessee
Chickasaw Lookout Tower
Chester County, TN 60-ft Aermotor MC-39 in Chickasaw State Forest; NHLR-registered 2023; state rule bars climbing and first flight of stairs was removed.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
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. On Chickasaw State Forest. State rule: fire towers on state forests are not open to the public; photography is allowed but climbing is not
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Visitors may photograph the tower but may not climb it, per the Chickasaw State Forest page
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor MC-39 towerThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Elevation
- 639 ft (195 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Division of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Chester County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 35.37475, −88.83074
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-chickasaw
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 on the Tennessee Division of Forestry tower list dated March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
- 2023 Condition assessmentNHLR site visit dated 8/5/23Source: nhlr.org
- 2023 AlteredFirst flight of stairs removed after the 8/28/21 NHLR visit; documented at the 8/5/23 visit. The exact removal date is not givenSource: nhlr.org
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 7, 2023 as US 1756, TN 60; 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 Chickasaw Lookout Tower stands in Chester County, Tennessee, inside Chickasaw State Forest.1,2 It is a 60-foot Aermotor MC-39, a design nearly identical to a 1933 model that International Derrick developed with Aermotor and the U.S. Forest Service.1,3
The register gives no build year for this tower.1 The MC-39 was used by the state forestry division in the 1930s and again after World War II, so the sources leave its date open.3
The MC-39's small landings were judged dangerous, and the design became less popular around the early 1940s.3 The LS-40 then became the state division's most popular tower type, and its wood plank platforms were considered safer than the MC-39's landings.3 We found no record of who staffed this tower or of any fire it watched.
The register added the tower on August 7, 2023, on the nomination of Jason Johns.1 Its visit notes, dated August 5, 2023, report that the first flight of stairs had been removed after an earlier visit on August 28, 2021.1 A 2014 list of surviving state towers includes it, and Tennessee Landforms lists it as standing.3,4
The register gives the elevation as 639 feet (195 meters), while Tennessee Landforms gives 643 feet. We report both rather than pick one.1,4
Fire towers on state forests are closed to public visits. Photography is allowed, but climbing is not, so please admire this tower from the ground.2
- Chickasaw Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/chickasaw-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Chickasaw State Forest, Tennessee Division of Forestry, https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/forests/state-forests/chickasaw.html (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
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, 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: type, 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 1756 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Chickasaw State Forest (Tennessee Division of Forestry (tn.gov)) (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)
- Chickasaw (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.