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Fire lookout · Marion County, Texas

Jefferson Lookout Site (moved from its original spot)

Also known as Jefferson (Loc 2)

Standing Marion County, Texas, tower; sources disagree on whether it is the 2003 downtown move or a separate Loc 2 site.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Owned by Etex Wireless and used as a cell tower; no public access is described.

Original site: Jefferson Lookout Site

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
Staffed during fire season (as of 1957)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-39 tower with 7 ft by 7 ft cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Etex Wireless
Land
Unknown
Location
Marion County, Texas
Coordinates
32.75952, −94.34229
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-tx-jefferson-lookout-site-moved

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. 1957 StaffedTexas Forest Service crew leader posted at the Jefferson lookout towerSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1958 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description: glass-enclosed cab on a four-legged steel structure about 100 feet tall, about 1.5 miles west-northwest of JeffersonSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1958 and 2003
  4. 2003 MovedMoved by the Jeffersonian Institute to a present location in downtown Jefferson, according to the register; the register's coordinates match the Loc 1 pointSource: firetower.org
  5. Date unknown MovedMoved a short way, to a new spot on the same site.Source: FFLA
  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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

No source we could read gives a build year for this steel lookout. A September 30, 1957 item from The Marshall News Messenger, quoted on a lookout history website, reports that a new crew leader had joined the Texas Forest Service at the Jefferson lookout tower.1 A Coast and Geodetic Survey station description, written in 1958, says the tower had a glass-enclosed cab on a four-legged steel frame, about 100 feet tall, and stood about 1.5 miles west-northwest of Jefferson.1

The register says the Jeffersonian Institute moved the tower in 2003 to its current spot in downtown Jefferson, and that it is now used as a cell tower.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists a standing tower called Jefferson (Loc 2), relocated from Jefferson (Loc 1), and marks the Loc 1 point as gone.3 The register's coordinates match the Loc 1 point, and the two listed points are about 3.4 km apart, so the sources do not agree on where the tower stands.2,3 Only the register gives a date for the move, and no source we read gives its distance.

The register gives the owner as Etex Wireless.2 It also says the local tourism office and chamber of commerce have offered to work with the owner on restoring the tower's steps and making it an educational, historical resource.2 Nothing we read says that work has happened. The tower is privately owned and in use as a cell tower.2 We would not climb it.

  1. Jefferson - Forest Lookouts, centraluslookouts.weebly.com, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/jefferson.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Jefferson Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/tx/jefferson-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Texas Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/tx/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.