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Fire lookout · Fayette County, Tennessee

Laconia Fire Tower

80 ft Aermotor on private land in Fayette County; register gives no build date; Tennessee Landforms lists state tower 9-7 as standing; history is thin.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On private property; the register lists the site as privately owned

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80 ft Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
498 ft (152 m)
Agency
Privately Owned
Land
Unknown
Location
Fayette County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.28295, −89.27283
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-laconia

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. 1976 EventCarried state forest tower number 9-7 on a 1976 list of towersSource: tnlandforms.us
  2. No record between 1976 and 2022
  3. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 28, 2022 as US 1708, TN 41Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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.

Laconia's tower stands in Fayette County, on private land.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes an 80-foot Aermotor and notes a small outbuilding on the site.1 The register gives no build date, and the sources I read do not say who built the tower or when.1

Tennessee Landforms lists it as state forest tower 9-7, drawn from a 1976 inventory, and marks it standing.2 The register names the Tennessee Division of Forestry as a cooperator, but it does not explain what role the agency played at this site.1 I found no account of fires, lookout staff or moves here.

The register lists the owner as private and records the registration on December 28, 2022.1

I found no source describing the tower's condition after that registration. Because the land is private, please ask the owner before going near it, and do not climb the tower.

  1. Laconia Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/laconia-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Laconia Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Laconia Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Laconia Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Laconia 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, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.