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Fire lookout · Augusta County, Virginia

Hardscrabble Knob Lookout Site

Forest Service lookout site in Augusta County, VA, registered 2015. The tower lies on the ground and a partly standing cabin is nearby.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower lies on the ground; a partly standing lookout cabin is nearby.

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 towerUnclear: either an Aeromotor windmill tower or a CAA aircraft beacon tower, with a unique 6 by 6 foot cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,290 ft (1,308 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Augusta County, Virginia
Coordinates
38.36750, −79.32030
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-hardscrabble-knob

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. 2015 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 9, 2015, on the nomination of Renick ProffittSource: firetower.org
  2. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Hardscrabble Knob is a former lookout site in Augusta County, Virginia, in the George Washington National Forest.1 The U.S. Forest Service built and used the tower there.1 The site sits at 4,290 feet (1,308 m).1

The design is unusual, and the register cannot settle it. It gives two possibilities, an Aeromotor windmill tower or a CAA aircraft beacon tower, and it calls the 6-by-6-foot cab unique.1 The register also says that, as far as it knows, no other fire tower has this design.1

The site was registered on June 9, 2015, on the nomination of Renick Proffitt.1 The Forest Lookouts list labels the site "Ruins."2

Today only the remains of the tower are on the ground, and a lookout cabin nearby is still partly standing.1 No source we read describes whether the public may visit the site.

  1. Hardscrabble Knob Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/va/hardscrabble-knob-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hardscrabble Knob, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/hardscrabble-knob.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Former Hardscrabble Knob tower
Former Hardscrabble Knob towerPhoto: Renick Proffitt, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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, 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.