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Fire lookout · Prince Edward County, Virginia

Leigh Mountain Fire Tower

Decommissioned 80-foot steel Aermotor in Prince Edward County, Virginia; the Register says the state forestry agency owns it, but a 2015 chapter report calls it private.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. A 2015 chapter report lists the tower as private, on land that was for sale. No source describes public access.

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 tower80-foot steel Aermotor with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
727 ft (222 m)
Agency
Virginia Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Prince Edward County, Virginia
Coordinates
37.20390, −78.35883
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-leigh-mountain

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

  1. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2015 as US 1078, VA 24Source: nhlr.org
  2. 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.

The Leigh Mountain Fire Tower stands in Prince Edward County, Virginia.1 The National Historic Lookout Register lists the Virginia Department of Forestry as its administrator and describes an 80-foot steel Aermotor with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1 The Register added the tower on June 9, 2015, as US 1078, VA 24.1

The sources disagree on who owns it. The Register says the Virginia Department of Forestry still owns the tower, which it describes as decommissioned and in poor condition.1 A 2015 chapter report from the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as private, on land that was then for sale.2 A 2013 advertisement for 285 acres in Prince Edward County, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, mentioned an old Virginia Forestry Department fire tower on the property.3

The sources read do not say when the tower was built or who built it, and they name no staff or fires.

The Register says the land under the tower has been on the market for many years, and it suggests a new owner could relocate the tower and restore it.1 The sources do not describe public access. The tower may sit on private land, so anyone interested should ask the landowner first and should not climb it.

  1. Leigh Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/va/leigh-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Virginia FFLA Chapter Report 2015, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-va-2015.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Leigh Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/leigh-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Leigh Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: Krissy Reynolds, 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, 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
  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, 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.