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Fire lookout · Alleghany County, Virginia

Brushy Mountain Lookout Site

Alleghany County, VA lookout site; 40-foot wooden CT-2 tower built by the Forest Service in 1939, removed before 2011; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 tower40' wooden CT-2 tower with 14'x14' wooden cab, wooden catwalk and shingle roofThe design: Region 6 timber towers (CT, TT)
Built of
Wood
Built
1939
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,015 ft (919 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Alleghany County, Virginia
Coordinates
37.81028, −80.15528
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-brushy-mountain

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1939 BuiltConstructed by the U.S. Forest ServiceSource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 2011
  3. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered April 10, 2011; nominated by Ron StaffordSource: firetower.org
  4. 2011 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "before 2011".Source: FFLOS register entry
  5. 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.

The Brushy Mountain lookout site sits in Alleghany County, Virginia, on land in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.1 Its registry numbers are US 923 and VA 9, and the site stands at 3,015 feet (919 m).1

The U.S. Forest Service built the tower in 1939.1 It was a CT-2 model, 40 feet high and built of wood, with a 14-by-14-foot cab, a catwalk and a shingled roof.1

According to the register, the tower came down before 2011.1 The site was added to the register on April 10, 2011, with Ron Stafford as nominator.1 A second listing of Virginia lookouts still marks the tower as gone.2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Brushy Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/va/brushy-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Virginia - Forest Fire Lookout Association, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Photo of Brushy Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: 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, ownership, 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, height, 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.