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Fire lookout · Cocke County, Tennessee

English Mountain Fire Tower

1934 CCC-built 60-foot Aermotor-type fire tower on Carson Springs Road, Cocke County, Tennessee; NHLR-registered 2014 and NRHP-nominated 2015. Current access and staffing not documented.

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. NRHP survey found the observation room trapdoor locked and the cab interior inaccessible. No current visit rules found; Wikipedia says the only access is Carson Springs Road.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot steel truss tower with seven-by-seven-foot cab; likely Aermotor MC-39 type; Carnegie Steel markerThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
3,617 ft (1,103 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Cocke County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.90083, −83.29778
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-english-mountain

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. 1934 BuiltConstructed by the Civilian Conservation CorpsSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  2. 1934 EventDeed from England, Walton & Co., Inc. to the State of Tennessee Forestry Service (Deed Book W, Vol. 55, p. 111)Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  3. 1934 StaffedCa. 1934 lookout operator's cabin, visible in a ca. 1948 photograph, is no longer extant; the nomination names no operatorsSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  4. No record between 1934 and 1960
  5. 1960 EventReplacement four-by-six-foot lookout operator's cabin; the nomination says it was removed sometime after 1985Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  6. No record between 1960 and 2014
  7. 2014 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered March 14, 2014 as US 993, TN 14; nominated by Ron StaffordSource: nhlr.org
  8. 2015 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNRIS 15000832; NPGallery record dated 11/20/2015Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  9. 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 English Mountain Fire Lookout Tower stands on Carson Springs Road near Chestnut Hill in Cocke County, Tennessee.1 The Tennessee Division of Forestry administers it.1,2 The Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1934, and its steel bears the marker of the Carnegie Steel Company.1 It is 60 feet tall with a seven-by-seven-foot cab.1 The nomination says it is likely an Aermotor MC-39.1 It also calls Aermotor, a Chicago company, the leading maker of steel fire towers in the early twentieth century.1

The 1934 deed transferred the property to the State of Tennessee Forestry Service.1 The nomination says very little historical information is available about this tower in particular.1 A lookout operator's cabin from about 1934, seen in a photograph from around 1948, is no longer extant.1 A four-by-six-foot cabin replaced it in 1960, and the nomination says that cabin was removed sometime after 1985.1

The nomination ties the tower to a state forestry program that relied heavily on CCC labor.1 It names no lookout operators and no fires the tower watched.1 The tower's period of significance runs from 1934 to 1965, and the nomination ends it when Tennessee's towers were largely abandoned.1

The nomination describes the tower as in overall good condition, with normal wear and tear.1 Its current functions are listed as emergency fire lookout and as vacant, not in use.1 The nomination says the tower has not been used for observation since the mid-1970s, though forestry staff occasionally climb it for maintenance checks.1 The observation room's trapdoor was locked at the time of the survey, and the interior of the cab was inaccessible.1

The sources disagree on elevation. The Register gives 3,617 feet, while the nomination gives 3,629 feet.2,1

The Park Service's record for the tower is dated November 20, 2015.3 Wikipedia, citing the Park Service, says the tower has a single access road, Carson Springs Road.4 A wildfire burned several hundred acres on the mountain in spring 2016, and the sources do not say whether the tower was involved.4 Check access with the Tennessee Division of Forestry before any visit, and do not climb a tower that is locked or closed.

  1. English Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/148151d5-f222-4f63-869e-ebb6c1cdea81 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. English Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/english-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. English Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, NRIS 15000832, National Park Service NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/15000832 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. English Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of English Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. 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, 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

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