FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sequatchie County, Tennessee

Dunlap Lookout Tower

Also known as Bennett

Aermotor fire tower in Sequatchie County, Tennessee, also called Bennett or Signal Mountain; registered by NHLR in 2019. Build date and current condition not found.

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 towertraditional Aermotor tower with a 7'x7' cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,372 ft (723 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Sequatchie County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.23670, −85.40870
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-dunlap

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 3.2 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. 2017 EventRegister says the tower was open to visitors in 2017 but may not be any longerSource: nhlr.org
  2. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAccepted by the National Historic Lookout Register on February 19, 2019 as US 1291, TN 32; nominated by Victoria OliverSource: nhlr.org
  3. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Dunlap Lookout Tower stands in Sequatchie County, Tennessee, and the Tennessee Division of Forestry administers it.1 The National Historic Lookout Register gives the site an elevation of 2,372 feet (723 meters).1

The register describes a traditional Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 At its base is an old house that may once have been the watchman's home.1 The register also says the site may be known as Bennett or Signal Mountain.1 A regional list of Tennessee towers shows a Bennett tower in Sequatchie County at 2,372 feet, which may be the same structure, though these sources do not confirm it.2,3

The register lists the tower as US 1291, TN 32. Victoria Oliver nominated it, and the register accepted it on February 19, 2019.1 The register reports that the tower was open to visitors in 2017, though that may no longer be the case.1

The sources do not say when the tower was built, who staffed it, or which fires it watched, and they do not describe its condition today. A regional guide advises against climbing Tennessee's towers and notes that steps are often removed or rotten.2 Check with the Tennessee Division of Forestry before any visit, and stay off any tower that is closed or on private land.

  1. Dunlap Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/dunlap-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bennett, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bennett.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

June 2017 photo
June 2017 photo (2017)Photo: Victoria Oliver, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN Gave us: type, 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
  3. 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.