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Fire lookout · McNairy County, Tennessee

Selmer Lookout Tower

Also known as Bethel Springs

80-foot Aermotor LS-40 in McNairy County, also called Bethel Springs; the register says the site is in state use.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. The register says the site is currently used by the state; no public access is described.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
576 ft (176 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
McNairy County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.20139, −88.60894
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-selmer

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 3.3 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. 1976 EventListed on the Division's 1976 tower list as district-tower 8-18, under the name Bethel SpringsSource: tnlandforms.us
  2. No record between 1976 and 2014
  3. 2014 Condition assessmentListed as extant (Bethel Springs, McNairy County) in a count as of March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  4. 2022 Condition assessmentRegister site visit dated March 6, 2022Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register on August 9, 2023Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 register calls it the Selmer Lookout Tower, while Tennessee Landforms and a 2014 count use the name Bethel Springs. All three sources place it in McNairy County.1,2,3 We treat them as one tower, although the match rests on county and name.

The register describes an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 at 576 feet elevation, administered by the Tennessee Division of Forestry.1 According to a National Register study, the LS-40 later became the favored tower type of both the Division and the Forest Service.3 We could not find a build date for this tower in the sources we read.

Tennessee Landforms lists it with state forest number 8-18, a number taken from a 1976 list of Division towers, and marks it standing.2

The register says the state is using the site now and records a site visit dated March 6, 2022.1 Because the site is in state use, this story does not suggest visiting or climbing the tower.1

  1. Selmer Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/selmer-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Park Service (NPGallery), https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

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