Fire lookout · Hardeman County, Tennessee
Hornsby Fire Tower
Hardeman County, TN: 90 ft Aermotor tower on an active TN Division of Forestry work center; NHLR-registered 2022. No build date; location and elevation differ between sources.
- 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. Register places the tower on an active TN Division of Forestry work center (2022); no public access described
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower90 ft Aermotor tower (NHLR); model not namedThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 90 ft (27.4 m)
- Elevation
- 558 ft (170 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Division of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Hardeman County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 35.22670, −88.86640 sources disagree
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-hornsby
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
- 2014 Condition assessmentListed among extant Tennessee fire towers in the table dated March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 28, 2022 by Jason Johns (NHLR)Source: 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 Hornsby Fire Tower stands in Hardeman County, Tennessee, on an active work center of the Tennessee Division of Forestry.1 The Register added it in December 2022 and describes a 90-foot Aermotor tower.1 It gives no build date, and the other sources we read give none either.
The state's list gives the tower the number 8-24, and its notes trace such numbers to a list of towers compiled in 1976.2 A 2014 table in the National Register document for the state's towers lists Hornsby among the extant towers.3
The sources disagree on the site's details. The Register gives the elevation as 558 feet and places the tower at 35.282954, -88.866625.1 The state's waypoint for the tower gives 581 feet and a point at 35.2267, -88.8664, which by our calculation is about six kilometers south of the Register's point.4
We found no account of who staffed the tower or of any fire it watched. The Register does not describe public access.1 Because the tower sits on a working state site, anyone interested should ask the Division of Forestry before going near it.
- Hornsby Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/hornsby-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Hornsby waypoint HRT002, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/m.php?wpt=HRT002 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on the location by 6.3 km (3.9 mi).
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN: 35.22670, −88.86640
- NHLR: 35.28295, −88.86662
The map uses the position from tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, 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
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN (opens another site) Gave us: location, 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, 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 1709 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Hornsby waypoint HRT002 (Tennessee Landforms (tnlandforms.us)) (opens another site)
- Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975 (National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places) (opens another site)
- Hornsby (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.