FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Amelia County, Virginia

Amelia Tower Site

Virginia Department of Forestry 125-foot steel tower in Amelia County, built 1965 and dismantled in 2004-05; the register photo shows its footings.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Dismantled in 2004-05; the register shows the footings.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower125-foot Aermotor steel tower, painted grayThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1965
Height
Unknown
Elevation
631 ft (192 m)
Agency
Virginia Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Amelia County, Virginia
Coordinates
37.33222, −77.98417
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-amelia

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1965 BuiltBuild year in the register; 1965 survey description matches the heightSources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1965 and 2004
  3. 2004 RemovedRemoved circa 2004-2005 (register); dismantled 2004-05 (Forest Lookouts). The record says 2005.Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 2005 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "2004-2005".Source: FFLOS register entry
  5. 2018 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 30, 2018Source: firetower.org
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Amelia Tower stood in Amelia County, Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Forestry administered it.1,2 The register gives 1965 as its build year and describes a 125-foot Aermotor steel tower, painted gray.2

A 1965 survey description of a station about a mile southwest of the town of Amelia gives a four-legged steel frame, a glass-enclosed cab and a height of 125 feet. That is probably this same tower.1

The two sources agree on the end. The register says it was removed around 2004 to 2005, and the Forest Lookouts page says it was dismantled in 2004-05.2,1

The register page carries a photo labeled as the tower's footings, credited to Google.2 Among the sources read, that photo is the only mention of anything left at the site. The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Virginia list marks the tower as gone.3

No source read says whether the site is open to the public. Check the land status with the managing agency before any visit.

  1. Amelia # 31, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/amelia--31.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Amelia Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/va/amelia-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Virginia fire lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Tower footings
Tower footingsPhoto: Google, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 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, 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

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