FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Stewart County, Tennessee

Model Fire Tower

Also known as Barrow, Barrow Hollow

Stewart County, Tennessee fire tower on Land Between the Lakes, built about 1954 for the Division of Forestry and NHLR-registered in 2009. No later condition source found.

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 tower80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with a 7 by 7 foot metal cab and wooden stepsThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1954
Height
Unknown
Elevation
611 ft (186 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Stewart County, Tennessee
Coordinates
36.61278, −87.98056
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-model

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 3.5 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. 1954 BuiltConstructed for the Tennessee Division of Forestry around 1954, on land leased that year from the Heath and Molloy familiesSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1954 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 3, 2009 as US 832, TN 9; nominated by Trenton C. GirardSource: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Model Fire Tower stands on the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Stewart County, Tennessee.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower went up around 1954 for the Tennessee Division of Forestry, on land that agency leased the same year from the Heath and Molloy families.1 Forest Lookouts lists a Stewart County tower called Barrow Hollow, and tnlandforms lists one called Barrow; both names probably refer to this tower, though no source says so outright.2,3

The tower is an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 with a metal cab seven feet square and wooden steps.1 The recreation area was originally run by the Tennessee Valley Authority and later passed to the Forest Service, which the Register lists as the administrator.4,1

The Register entry, made on November 3, 2009, describes the tower as still used for fire detection.1 The sources we read do not name who staffed it or any fires it watched.

The 2009 entry is the most recent dated source we found, so the tower's condition since then is unconfirmed. The tnlandforms list, which carries no date, marks the Barrow listing as standing, with an elevation of 650 feet, where the Register gives 611 feet.3,1 Access for visitors is not covered by any source we read. Wikipedia names the Forest Service as the recreation area's governing body, so check with that agency before any visit.4

  1. Model Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/model-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Barrow Hollow, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/barrow-hollow.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan), https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Between_the_Lakes_National_Recreation_Area (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Model 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, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, 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.