Fire lookout · Morgan County, Tennessee
Windswept
Morgan County, TN 60-ft Aermotor tower, moved from Walden Mountain, sold by state forestry in 1994 and restored privately in 1998; now on a private farm.
- Standing
- Private land
- Verified
Private land
No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On Windswept Farm, which the Register describes as private ownership; no public access described
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor steel tower with 7-by-7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Elevation
- 1,506 ft (459 m)
- Agency
- Tennessee Forestry Division (former owner, sold 1994)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Morgan County, Tennessee
- Coordinates
- 36.14990, −84.72820
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-tn-windswept-2
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
- 1994 EventTennessee Forestry Division sold the tower; the Register does not give the date it was moved from Walden MountainSource: nhlr.org
- 1998 RestoredNew private owners completed reconstruction and restorationSource: nhlr.org
- 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 17, 1999 as US 312, TN 5Source: 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.
Windswept is a 60-foot Aermotor steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, now on Windswept Farm in Morgan County, Tennessee.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it first stood on Walden Mountain near Harriman, 15 miles to the south.1 The sources we read do not say when it was first built or who first staffed it.
The Tennessee Forestry Division sold the tower in 1994.1 The new private owners rebuilt and restored it, finishing in 1998.1 The Register lists it as US 312, TN 5, and gives its registration date as March 17, 1999.1 We have left the owners' names out of this story.
The sources disagree on the tower's coordinates and elevation. Tennessee Landforms places it in Morgan County at 36.1499, -84.7282, and lists it at 1,506 feet, marked standing.2 The Register gives 958 feet (292 meters) and different coordinates.1 We could not tell which position is correct, so we have left the record as it is.
Tennessee Landforms notes that most former lookout sites in the state are now private property, and it advises visitors not to climb the towers, because the steps are often missing or decayed.3 We found no recent report on Windswept's condition or on public access. Treat the farm as private land, and ask the owners before going near the tower.
- Windswept Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/windswept-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- TN lookout tower: MGT008 Windswept, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/m.php?wpt=MGT008 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Tennessee lookout towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Sources
- tnlandforms.us fire lookout towers (Tom Dunigan) -- GA, NC, TN (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, status, 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, 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
- Windswept Lookout (National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org)) (opens another site)
- TN lookout tower: MGT008 Windswept (Tennessee Landforms (tnlandforms.us)) (opens another site)
- Windswept (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.