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Fire lookout · Morgan County, Tennessee

Windswept Lookout

Morgan County, TN 60' Aermotor tower first on Walden Mountain near Harriman; sold by the state in 1994, restored by private owners by 1998, now on Windswept Farm; NHLR-registered 1999.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On Windswept Farm; the Register credits new private owners with the restoration; no public access 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 tower60' Aermotor steel tower with 7'x7' cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
958 ft (292 m)
Agency
Craig Davidson (administrator per NHLR); Tennessee Division of Forestry until its 1994 sale
Land
Unknown
Location
Morgan County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.93667, −84.06655
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-windswept

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. 1994 RemovedTennessee Forestry Division sold the tower; the Register says it originally stood on Walden Mountain near HarrimanSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1998 RestoredNew private owners completed reconstruction and restoration on Windswept FarmSource: nhlr.org
  3. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 17, 1999 as US 312, TN 5; nominated by Rob NorwoodSource: nhlr.org
  4. 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 Windswept Lookout stands on Windswept Farm in Morgan County, Tennessee, and the National Historic Lookout Register lists it as US 312, TN 5.1 The tower is 60 feet high, an Aermotor built of steel, with a cab measuring 7 by 7 feet.1 It did not start out on the farm.1 The Register says the tower first stood on Walden Mountain near Harriman, 15 miles to the south.1

The Tennessee Forestry Division sold the tower in 1994.1 The new private owners rebuilt and restored it, finishing in 1998.1 The Register does not say when the tower was first built, and we found no account of who staffed it or of any fire it watched.1

The Register records the tower as registered on March 17, 1999, on the nomination of Rob Norwood, and names Craig Davidson as its administrator.1 A Tennessee landforms list places the tower in Morgan County and gives its status as standing.2 That list also gives an elevation of 1,506 feet.2 The Register gives 958 feet for the site.1 The two may describe different spots, and we have not settled which is right.1,2

The Register credits new private owners with the tower's restoration, and the tower sits on Windswept Farm.1 We found no public access information, so anyone interested should ask Windswept Farm before visiting.1

  1. Windswept Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/windswept-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lookout towers, Tennessee Landforms, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Windswept Lookout
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. 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.