Fire lookout · Bath County, Virginia
Duncan Knob Lookout
60-foot Aermotor fire tower in Bath County, Virginia, built late 1930s; listed standing; NHLR-registered 2017; administrator and public access unclear.
- 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 tower60-foot Aermotor tower with a wrap-around catwalk; second of two towers in Bath CountyThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Elevation
- 3,844 ft (1,172 m)
- Agency
- American Tower Corporation (per NHLR)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Bath County, Virginia
- Coordinates
- 38.16448, −79.70528
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-va-duncan-knob
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
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 23, 2017 as US 1165, VA 31Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Duncan Knob Lookout is a 60-foot Aermotor tower in Bath County, Virginia. The National Historic Lookout Register says it was built in the late 1930s and is the second of two towers in the county.1 Its special feature is a wrap-around catwalk.1
The Register's table gives the elevation as 3,844 feet, but its description says 3,819 feet, so the exact figure is unclear.1
A Forest Fire Lookout Association list of Virginia towers marks it as standing.2 The Register lists a registration date of January 23, 2017, under the number US 1165, VA 31.1
Ownership reads differently across sources. The Register names American Tower Corporation as the administrator, while an eastern lookouts site places the tower in the George Washington National Forest.1,3 The sources do not explain how the two fit together.
The sources read do not give a staffing history or name any fires the tower watched. They also do not say whether the public may go up it, so anyone planning a visit should check with the forest office or the administrator first.
- Duncan Knob Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/va/duncan-knob-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Virginia lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Duncan Knob, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/duncan-knob.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: ownership, 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1165 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Virginia lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Duncan Knob (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 6882368163 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.