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Fire lookout · Wayne County, Tennessee

Hardin Creek Fire Tower

80 ft Aermotor fire tower in Wayne County, Tennessee, administered by the TN Division of Forestry; NHLR-registered 2022. Build date unknown; no staffing history 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 tower80 ft Aermotor with diagonal internal staircase; original forester's cabin on siteThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
851 ft (259 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Wayne County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.27089, −87.92749
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-hardin-creek

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. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 31, 2022 as US 1712, TN 45; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: nhlr.org
  2. 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 Hardin Creek Fire Tower is in Wayne County, Tennessee, and the National Historic Lookout Register lists the Tennessee Division of Forestry as its administrator.1 The Register describes an 80-foot Aermotor whose internal staircase runs on a diagonal.1 The site also has the original forester's cabin, which the Register says is similar in design to the cabin at the Towerview Fire Tower.1 The site sits at 851 feet (259 meters).1

The Register does not say when the tower was built, and it lists the build date as unknown.1 Jason Johns nominated the tower, and the Register entered it on December 31, 2022, as US 1712 and TN 45.1 A Tennessee lookout list gives the name Hardins Creek, puts the tower at 853 feet, and marks it as standing.2 Map data lists a Hardins Creek Fire Tower as an observation tower with lattice construction.3

The Register and the map data give nearly identical coordinates, so they appear to describe the same tower.1,3 The sources differ on the spelling of the name, Hardin Creek or Hardins Creek, and their elevation figures differ by less than ten feet.1,2,3

I found no source that says who staffed the tower, what fires it watched, or whether it has been moved or repaired since it was built. None of the sources read say whether the public may visit or climb it, so anyone planning a trip should check with the Tennessee Division of Forestry first.

  1. Hardin Creek Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/hardin-creek-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hardins Creek Fire Tower, OpenStreetMap, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/356894894 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hardin Creek Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hardin Creek Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hardin Creek Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hardin Creek Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hardin Creek 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, type, 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · 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.