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Fire lookout · Spotsylvania County, Virginia

Partlow Lookout

Spotsylvania County, VA 110-foot Aermotor tower moved from Prince William Forest Park to Partlow in 1961; NHLR-registered 2017; standing, state-administered, access restricted.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. State-administered site. The 2019 NHLR visit report notes security cameras, and the visitor did not approach the base. No public visiting arrangement found.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower110-foot Aermotor tower with 7'x7' cab (NHLR); the earlier tower at Prince William Forest Park is described as wooden (FFLOS)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1942
Height
110 ft (33.5 m)
Elevation
416 ft (127 m)
Agency
Virginia Department of Forestry (NHLR)
Land
Unknown
Location
Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Coordinates
38.04712, −77.64452
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-va-partlow

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 3.5 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. 1942 BuiltFFLOS register gives 1942 as the build year for the tower at Prince William Forest Park; its description says it was erected at the beginning of WWIISources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1942 and 1961
  3. 1961 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1961 MovedMoved from Prince William Forest Park and erected at Partlow in October 1961 (newspaper: 13 forestry staff; NHLR: 13 locals)Sources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1961 and 2017
  6. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 23, 2017 as US 1163, VA 29Source: nhlr.org
  7. 2019 Condition assessmentNHLR visit report dated August 9, 2019: rust, missing window glass seen in aerial image, cell tower antennas and dishes, not staffedSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Partlow Lookout is a 110-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, standing near Lake Anna in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.1,2 It was moved there from another site.1,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register calls that earlier tower wooden, so the two registers disagree about its construction.1,3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the earlier tower was apparently erected at Prince William Forest Park at the beginning of the Second World War and saw little use afterward. It gives 1942 as the build year. A 1961 newspaper report says the tower had been at the park since early in the war but gives no year, so the exact date is not settled.3,4

In 1961 the tower was moved to Partlow.3,4 A newspaper report dated October 12, 1961 says 13 Virginia Forestry Division staff, drawn from several locations, put it up that week.4 The register, by contrast, says 13 locals built it that year and that the tower had been brought from what it calls Prince William State Forest.1

The newspaper expected the tower to be manned about 60 days in spring and about 20 in the fall, and said four or five women in the area had offered to staff it during fire season.4 The register names Grace Newton as a watchperson on the tower and calls her Virginia's first female watchperson. It gives no year for her service.1

The register names the Virginia Department of Forestry as administrator and gives January 23, 2017 as the registration date.1 The state index lists the tower as standing.2

The one visit report on the register page, from August 9, 2019, notes some rust that does not look too bad, an aerial image suggesting some window glass is missing, and a complete cell tower antenna suite with many dishes. It marks the tower as not staffed.1

The visitor noticed security cameras on arrival and did not approach the base to check whether NHLR signs were posted.1 We found no public visiting arrangement, so treat the site as restricted and ask the Virginia Department of Forestry before going near it.1

  1. Partlow Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/va/partlow-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Virginia, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/va/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Prince William Forest Park Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/va/prince-william-forest-park-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Virginia, Forest Lookouts (quoting The Free-Lance Star, October 12, 1961), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/virginia.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Partlow Lookout
Photo: Kristin Reynolds, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
August 2019 photo
August 2019 photo (2019)Photo: James Hull, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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.