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Fire lookout · Union County, Tennessee

Chuck Swan Fire Lookout Tower

Union County, TN tower built by the CCC around 1935 for the TVA; state-owned since 1952; NRHP-listed 2021; standing in Chuck Swan State Forest.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40 type; 100-foot galvanized steel tower with an observation cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,674 ft (510 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry; built by the CCC for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which sold it to the state in 1952
Land
Unknown
Location
Union County, Tennessee
Coordinates
36.37211, −83.89328
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-chuck-swan

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

  1. 1934 BuiltSource: Wikidata
  2. 1935 BuiltBuilt ca. 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps for the TVA (nomination). The National Register multiple property form and Wikidata give 1934Sources: tn.gov, npgallery.nps.gov, wikidata.org
  3. No record between 1935 and 1952
  4. 1952 EventTVA sold the tower and surrounding forest land to the State of Tennessee; the state renamed the site for Commissioner Charles 'Chuck' Swan, who oversaw the purchaseSource: tn.gov
  5. No record between 1952 and 1971
  6. 1971 Last staffedPeriod of significance ends in 1971, about when the state ceased to use its fire towers on a continuous basis (statewide statement in nomination)Source: tn.gov
  7. No record between 1971 and 2013
  8. 2013 AlteredRadio tower and equipment building added nearby (nomination: ca. 2013; aerial images place construction between April 2012 and November 2013)Source: tn.gov
  9. 2021 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 28, 2021Source: tn.gov
  10. 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 Chuck Swan Fire Lookout Tower stands in Chuck Swan State Forest in Union County, on one of the tallest hills in the region.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built it for the Tennessee Valley Authority around 1935.1 The sources disagree on the year. A National Register study of the state's towers and Wikidata both give 1934.2,3

The tower was first called the Central Peninsula Fire Lookout Tower.1 In 1952 the TVA sold the tower and the surrounding forest land to the state, which renamed the site for Conservation Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Swan, who had overseen the purchase.1 It is a 100-foot steel tower of the Aermotor LS-40 design.1,2

Around 1971 the state stopped using its fire towers continuously, as newer ways of identifying fires became available.1 The lookout operator's cabin nearby once gave shelter to spotters.1 We found no named fire in the sources we read.

The nomination says every resource remains at its original location.1 The operator's cabin is now used for storage, and the crew house from about 1950 is office space.1 A radio tower and equipment building from about 2013 stand nearby, and the equipment building sits inside a chain-link fence.1

The National Register listed the tower on June 28, 2021.1 Gravel forest roads reach the site.1 The sources we read do not say whether the public may visit or climb it. Tennessee Landforms advises against climbing old towers, because steps are often missing or decayed.4 Please do not climb it, and ask the Division of Forestry before going to the site. We found no rental or lodging use.

  1. Chuck Swan 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_swan-fire-lookout-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. Chuck Swan Fire Lookout Tower, Wikidata, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107407265 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. 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, register numbers, 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: agency, 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: height, register numbers, dates, 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, 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.