FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Rhea County, Tennessee

Smyrna (Evansville) Lookout Tower

Also known as Smyrna

A 65-foot Aermotor lookout tower from the late 1950s in Rhea County, Tennessee. The cab is locked; its condition and use after 2019 are unconfirmed.

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. Cab is locked. The register says signage allows visitors to climb at their own risk; the sources read do not confirm the site's owner or current use.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower65-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 x 7 ft cab, built in the late 1950s (no exact year in the sources read)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,024 ft (312 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Rhea County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.58059, −84.92180
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-smyrna-evansville

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. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered per NHLR detail page: August 1, 2019Source: NHLR register entry
  2. 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 Smyrna lookout, which the National Historic Lookout Register lists as Smyrna (Evansville), is a 65-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, built in the late 1950s.1 It stands in Rhea County2 and is administered by the Tennessee Division of Forestry.1

The state's fire towers have a longer history. Between 1933 and 1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps put up 98 lookout towers in Tennessee, and construction went on through the 1950s.3 Smyrna belongs to that later period.1,3

The state's inventory numbers towers by district and tower, and lists this one as 3-2, standing, in District 3.3,2 A National Register study of the state's towers says the Aermotor LS-40 design saw broad use by the forestry division until the mid-1970s.4 The sources I read do not say which Aermotor model Smyrna is, who chose the site, who staffed it, or whether it saw any notable fires.

The register says the cab is locked, though signage permits climbing at the visitor's own risk.1 The register also reports active use as of 2019.1 I could not confirm its condition or any use after 2019. The state's list says many towers are gone and most of their former sites are privately owned.3 The sources do not say who owns this site. The same list advises against climbing these towers.3 Visitors should not count on being able to climb Smyrna.

  1. Smyrna (Evansville) Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/smyrna-evansville-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Smryna - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Eastern US Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/smryna.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, multiple property document, National Park Service NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

February 2019 photo
February 2019 photo (2019)Photo: Victoria Oliver, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, access, 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.