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Fire lookout · Bradley County, Tennessee

Liberty Lookout Tower

Also known as N4AOW Tower

Bradley County tower built in 2003 by John P. Williams from two surplus Division of Forestry towers; on private land; the N4AOW link is an inference.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On the owner's property; the register describes no public visiting

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 tower assembled from two surplus Aermotor towersThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
2003
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,038 ft (316 m)
Agency
John P. Williams, Owner
Land
Unknown
Location
Bradley County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.07778, −84.88333
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-liberty

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. 2003 BuiltAssembled from two surplus Division of Forestry towers (Sparta and Sale Creek) into one 80-foot towerSource: nhlr.org
  2. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 7, 2009 as US 820, TN 8Source: 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Liberty Lookout went up in 2003 on John P. Williams's property in the Town of Cleveland, Bradley County.1 According to the register, Williams obtained two surplus Aermotor towers from the state's Division of Forestry and merged them into a single 80-foot tower. Those two were the Sparta and Sale Creek towers.1

The register entry was made on July 7, 2009.1 Tennessee Landforms lists a standing tower in Bradley County under the name N4AOW Tower, and it refers to an article about reassembling a tower in that county.2 No source we read says outright that this is the same structure as the Liberty Lookout. The county match and the reassembly account make it likely, so we have treated them as one tower.

Two towers on the register share the name. Liberty Lookout Tower (1) is a separate entry, US 1754, in Madison County, managed by the Division of Forestry, so don't mix the two up.3

The register places the tower on the owner's property and names Mr. Williams as owner. Please ask him before going near it, and do not climb it.1

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

Photos

Photo of Liberty Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Liberty Lookout Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Liberty Lookout Tower
Photo: 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, 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: 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, 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

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