Fire lookout · Lawrence County, Tennessee
New Prospect Lookout Tower
Standing 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower at an active Tennessee Division of Forestry site in Lawrence County; no build date or builder found, so the record is thin.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower80ft Aermotor LS-40The design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 1,009 ft (308 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Division of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Lawrence County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 35.24184, −87.23508
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-new-prospect
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
- 2022 Condition assessmentRegister records a site visit dated November 26, 2022Source: nhlr.org
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 9, 2023 as US 1761, TN 65; nominated by Jason JohnsSource: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The New Prospect Lookout Tower stands in Lawrence County, Tennessee.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says the Tennessee Division of Forestry administers it and calls the site an active forestry site.1 The Register describes an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower.1
The Register gives the elevation as 1,009 feet (308 meters).1 A statewide tower inventory gives 1004 feet, about five feet lower, and lists the tower as standing.2
Neither source says when the tower was built or who built it, and I found no other source that does. The Register's only dates are a site visit on November 26, 2022 and the tower's registration on August 9, 2023.1
The sources do not say whether the public may visit or climb the tower. Because the Register describes an active forestry site, ask the Division of Forestry before going, and do not climb the tower.
- New Prospect Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/new-prospect-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Tennessee lookout towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN (opens another site) 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1761 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- New Prospect (tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan)) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 11214981068 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.