Fire lookout · Fayette County, Tennessee
Williston Lookout Tower
Also known as Ebenezer
Fayette County, TN tower on NHLR as an 80 ft Aermotor LS-40 administered by TN Division of Forestry; build date and builder not found; Ebenezer link unconfirmed.
- 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 tower80 ft 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
- 577 ft (176 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Division of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Fayette County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 35.14276, −89.34916
- Registers
- NHLR US 1752 · TN 56
- NGS FE 2498
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-williston
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
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 6, 2023 on the National Historic Lookout Register as US 1752, TN 56Source: 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Williston Lookout Tower stands in Fayette County, Tennessee, on a site the Tennessee Division of Forestry administers.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower.1 We could not find when it went up, who built it, or why it was placed there, so its construction remains unknown.1,2
A Tennessee tower compiler lists a Fayette County tower under the name Ebenezer and gives it state forest tower number 9-8.2 The compiler calls these names unofficial and says they were given to towers the USGS maps and the state forestry list left unnamed.2 We could not confirm that the Ebenezer entry describes the same site as the Williston record. If it does, the two sources disagree on elevation: the Register gives 577 feet, and the compiler's table gives 594 feet. We use the Register's figure.1,2
We found no account of who staffed the tower or of any fire it watched.1,2
The Register lists the tower with an August 6, 2023 registration date.1 The compiler's table marks it as standing.2
Today the Register calls the site an active Tennessee Forestry site.1 We found no public access arrangement, so visitors should not assume they may go onto the grounds. The compiler advises against climbing lookout towers, because steps are often removed or rotten.2
- Williston Lookout Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/williston-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee Lookout Towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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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, register numbers, 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
- 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 1752 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Ebenezer (tnlandforms.us (Tom Dunigan)) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.