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Fire lookout · Wayne County, Tennessee

Lutts Lookout Tower

80-foot Aermotor LS-40 lookout in Wayne County, TN; former Tennessee Forestry site now privately owned; build date unknown; listed as standing.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. NHLR says the former Forestry site is now privately owned; no public access is described

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-foot Aermotor LS-40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
897 ft (273 m)
Agency
Privately owned (former Tennessee Division of Forestry site)
Land
Unknown
Location
Wayne County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.08912, −87.91931
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-lutts

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. 2014 EventListed among Tennessee fire towers still standing as of March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  2. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 11, 2023; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Lutts Lookout Tower stands in Wayne County, Tennessee.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower.1 The Register lists its build date as unknown, so none of the sources we read say when it went up.1

Aermotor's LS-40 ranked among its most popular steel towers, and it debuted in 1917.2 Tennessee's Division of Forestry used it widely.2 A National Register study of the state's towers says the design stayed in wide use until the mid-1970s, when other ways of spotting fires took over.2

The sources do not say who staffed this tower or whether it saw any notable fires.

The Register says the tower was once a Tennessee Forestry site and is now privately owned.1 A list of towers still standing as of March 26, 2014, printed in the same study, includes Lutts in Wayne County.2 Tennessee Landforms also marks it as standing.3 It gives the tower the number 7-25, which in the state's 1976 list means district 7, tower 25.3

The Register does not describe any public access to the tower.1 Please do not climb it.

  1. Lutts Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/lutts-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Park Service National Register multiple property listing, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

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