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Fire lookout · Bedford County, Virginia

Bedford Fire Tower

Aermotor steel tower in Bedford County, Virginia; originally Virginia Department of Forestry, now private. Registered 2014; the register and a 1964 survey disagree on height.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. The Register says the tower is now privately owned.

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 towerAermotor four-legged steel tower with glass cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
Unknown
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
1,182 ft (360 m)
Agency
Virginia Department of Forestry > Private
Land
Unknown
Location
Bedford County, Virginia
Coordinates
37.32077, −79.52294
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-bedford

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. 1964 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description: four-legged steel tower with glass cab, painted gray, overall height 100 feet. The register gives 80 feet.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1964 and 2014
  3. 2014 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 3, 2014 as US 1037, VA 17Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bedford Fire Tower stands in Bedford County, Virginia, about a mile south of the town of Bedford.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an 80-foot Aermotor steel tower, and says it is a landmark for travelers on US Route 460 between Roanoke and Bedford.1

I found no build date in the sources I read, and no staffing history or named fires either. A 1964 Coast and Geodetic Survey description, reproduced by Forest Lookouts, calls the tower a Virginia State Forest Service lookout.2 It describes a four-legged steel tower with a glass cab, painted gray.2 The survey record's designation is Bedford State Forest lot.2

The two sources disagree on height. The survey description gives the overall height as 100 feet, while the register says 80.1,2 I could not settle which figure is right. This page uses the register's 80 feet.

The register says the Virginia Department of Forestry originally owned the tower, and that it is now privately owned.1 It was registered on September 3, 2014, as US 1037, VA 17.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Virginia list shows it as standing.3 Do not mix it up with Apple Orchard Mountain, another Bedford County tower that the Association lists as gone.3

Because the tower is privately owned, do not climb it or walk onto the land without the owner's permission.

  1. Bedford Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/va/bedford-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bedford, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bedford.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Virginia, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bedford Fire Tower
Photo: Kristin Scholetzky, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, 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. 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: design, height, agency, 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, height, 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.