FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Wayne County, Tennessee

McGlamery Lookout Tower

A 100-foot steel International Derrick tower of unknown build date in Wayne County, documented standing since at least a 1955 photograph.

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 tower100 ft International Derrick, Model 1933 (steel tower)The design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,059 ft (323 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Wayne County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.14891, −87.74261
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-mcglamery

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

  1. 1955 EventEarliest documented trace: a 1955 photograph of the tower held by the Tennessee State Library and ArchivesSource: tnlandforms.us
  2. No record between 1955 and 2023
  3. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to NHLR December 11, 2023, nominated by Jason Johns; register also records a site visit on 2023-11-25 (outcome not stated)Source: 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Most of Tennessee's fire towers date to the Great Depression, when the Civilian Conservation Corps put up 98 lookouts for the state forestry service between 1933 and 1941.1 McGlamery Lookout Tower, on a ridge above Wayne County at around 1,059 feet, may or may not be one of them: the National Historic Lookout Register lists its build date simply as unknown.2 The structure itself is a 100-foot steel tower, described on the register as "an 100ft International Derrick, Model 1933" — a design sold to forestry agencies across the country in the mid-20th century.2 It has long been administered by the Tennessee Division of Forestry.2

The earliest documentary trace found so far is a 1955 photograph of the tower, noted in a Tennessee lookout-tower survey.3 That same survey lists the tower's status simply as standing.3 Nothing has turned up yet about who staffed it, what fires it spotted, or when regular staffing ended.

McGlamery was formally added to the National Historic Lookout Register on December 11, 2023, nominated by Jason Johns; the register also records a site visit on November 25, 2023.2 No source found in this research describes current public access, so treat it for now as a tower to view from a distance rather than one to climb.

  1. Tennessee lookout towers, tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan), https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. McGlamery Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/mcglamery-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. TN lookout tower: WYT004 McGlamerys, tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan), https://tnlandforms.us/towers/m.php?wpt=WYT004 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

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