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Fire lookout · Bledsoe County, Tennessee

Worthington Knob (Luminary) Fire Tower

Also known as Worthington Knob

Bledsoe County tower, also called Luminary, built 1961-1962 per the register and believed Aermotor; Division of Forestry administers it; inventory lists it standing.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerBelieved to be an Aermotor tower, about 50 ft tall per the registerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1961
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,554 ft (779 m)
Agency
Tennessee Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Bledsoe County, Tennessee
Coordinates
35.68849, −85.04980
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tn-worthington-knob-luminary

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 3.1 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. 1961 BuiltRegister gives the build years as 1961-1962; the record's 1961 is the first year of that rangeSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1961 and 1976
  3. 1976 EventTennessee inventory gives district-tower number 3-7, taken from a 1976 list of towers; this is a list number, not a build dateSource: tnlandforms.us
  4. No record between 1976 and 2019
  5. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 17, 2019 as US 1299, TN 34; nominated by Victoria OliverSource: nhlr.org
  6. 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.

Also known as the Luminary Tower, the Worthington Knob Fire Tower is in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, above the Sequatchie Valley.1 The National Historic Lookout Register gives its elevation as 2,554 feet (778 metres).1,2 It dates construction to 1961 and 1962.1 The tower is about 50 feet tall, and the register considers it probably an Aermotor design.1 The sources read do not explain where the Luminary name comes from.1

The Tennessee Division of Forestry administers the tower.1 A regional lookout site lists it in the Division's District 3, in Bledsoe County.3 No source read names the people who staffed the tower or records any fires it spotted.1,3

The Tennessee inventory numbers the tower 3-7, taken from a 1976 list of towers, and marks it as standing.2 The register gives its registry numbers as US 1299 and TN 34, and records its registration on March 17, 2019, with Victoria Oliver as nominator.1

The register's photograph is dated April 2018 and credited to Victoria Oliver.1 A state page on Bledsoe State Forest says fire towers on state forests are not open to the public, and that visitors may photograph but not climb them.4 The sources read do not say whether this tower stands on state forest land, so check with the Division before planning a visit.1,4

  1. Worthington Knob (Luminary) Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/tn/worthington-knob-luminary-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tennessee lookout towers, tnlandforms.us, https://tnlandforms.us/towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Worthington Knob, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/worthington-knob.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Bledsoe State Forest, Tennessee Division of Forestry, https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/forests/state-forests/bledsoe.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

April 2018 photo
April 2018 photo (2018)Photo: Victoria Oliver, via 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, 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: type, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.