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Fire lookout · Houston County, Tennessee

Towerview Fire Tower

Houston County, TN tower built by the CCC in 1935-36 for the Tennessee Division of Forestry, moved to Towerview Farm in 1997 and NHLR-registered in 1998.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On a private working farm owned by the Clark family; a 2018 WKRN visit reported visitors could climb the tower, but no current access statement was found

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower70' Aermotor tower with 7'x7' metal cab; towerman's residence a 14'x24' chestnut log cabinThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
70 ft (21.3 m)
Elevation
608 ft (185 m)
Agency
Built for the Tennessee Division of Forestry; owned by Joel and Jason Clark since 1997
Land
Unknown
Location
Houston County, Tennessee
Coordinates
36.28020, −87.57212
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-towerview

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 3.4 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. 1935 BuiltBuilt by the CCC in 1935-36 for the Tennessee Division of Forestry at Stoney Point, Dickson CountySource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 1997
  3. 1997 MovedBought by Joel and Jason Clark and moved intact about 12 miles by truck to Towerview Farm, Houston County; WKRN (2018) gives an adjacent-property origin insteadSources: nhlr.org, wkrn.com
  4. 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 1, 1998 as US 252, TN 4Source: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1998 and 2014
  6. 2014 Condition assessmentListed in the table of extant towers as of March 26, 2014Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  7. 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 Civilian Conservation Corps built the Towerview Fire Tower in 1935 and 1936 for the Tennessee Division of Forestry, at Stoney Point in Dickson County.1 It is a 70-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab. The towerman's home was a 14-by-24-foot chestnut log cabin.1

The sources we read do not say who staffed the tower during its working years or whether it watched any notable fires.

In 1997 Joel and Jason Clark bought the tower and moved it intact by truck, along with the cabin, about 12 miles to their Towerview Farm.1 A 2018 WKRN report says instead that the tower came from an adjacent property.2 The two accounts disagree about where it came from. We follow the Register here, because it gives the distance.1

The Clarks also acquired a forestry fire truck. The Register says it remains active as the Towerview Farm Independent Volunteer Fire Service.1 The Register added the tower on March 1, 1998, as US 252, TN 4.1

A table of extant towers in a National Register study, as of March 26, 2014, lists Towerview among them.3 Tennessee Landforms lists the Stony Point tower in Dickson County as moved, which fits this history.4

A 2018 WKRN visit described a working farm that had been in the Clark family for generations, and reported that visitors could climb the tower to see the view.2 Tennessee Landforms lists Towerview as standing, though it gives no date.4 That was one farm visit eight years ago, and we found nothing newer about access. Ask the owners before you go, and do not climb a tower on private land without permission.

  1. Towerview Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/towerview-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Davis Nolan's Fall Funtacular at Towerview Farm in Houston County, WKRN, https://www.wkrn.com/community/funtacular/davis-nolans-fall-funtacular-at-towerview-farm-in-houston-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tennessee Division of Forestry Fire Lookout Towers, 1933 to 1975, National Register of Historic Places multiple property form, NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64501237.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Tennessee Lookout Towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Towerview Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Towerview 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, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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.