Fire lookout · Dinwiddie County, Virginia
DeWitt (Dinwiddie) Lookout
Dinwiddie County tower near DeWitt: a 110-foot Aermotor built in the 1930s, administered by the Virginia Department of Forestry, standing and on the Register since 2017.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower110-foot Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1930
- Height
- 110 ft (33.5 m)
- Elevation
- 302 ft (92 m)
- Agency
- Virginia Department of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Dinwiddie County, Virginia
- Coordinates
- 37.04203, −77.63981
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-va-dewitt-dinwiddie
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 3.2 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
- 1930 BuiltRegister gives only 'the 1930s'; 1930 stands in for that decade, not a confirmed yearSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1930 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 23, 2017 as US 1164, VA 30Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The DeWitt lookout stands in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Forestry administers it.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes a 110-foot Aermotor tower built in the 1930s, and it gives no closer date than the decade.1 The Register says it was built to do double duty, spotting fires and watching over woodland on behalf of local lumber yards.1
Later, the tower was staffed only when needed, since Fort Pickett lay nearby.1 The sources I read do not name anyone who staffed it, and none records a specific fire at the site.1,2,3
The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.2 A blog post calls it a retired fire lookout.3 Read together, the two describe a tower that is still there but no longer used as a lookout.2,3
The Register registered the tower on January 23, 2017, as US 1164 and VA 30.1 None of these sources says whether the public may climb or visit it, or whether it can be rented.1,2,3 Ask the Virginia Department of Forestry before going, and do not climb the tower.
- DeWitt (Dinwiddie) Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/va/dewitt-dinwiddie-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Virginia - Forest Fire Lookout Association, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Dewitt Fire Lookout, Wade's Blog, https://wademurray.com/2010/dewitt-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1164 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Dewitt Fire Lookout (Wade's Blog) (opens another site)
- FFLA Virginia lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.