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Fire lookout · Oconto County, Wisconsin

Bagley Lookout

Oconto County, Wisconsin fire tower dated October 1939 by the state record and NHLR; DNR spring staffing ended 2009; not demolished; a 1932 predecessor at the station is possible.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Wisconsin standard tower with an external protected ladderThe design: Wisconsin standard tower
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
877 ft (267 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Oconto County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.10572, −88.31764
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-bagley

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 3.9 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. 1932 BuiltA 1934 federal survey station description gives a 73-foot steel tower erected in 1932 at the station. A lookout directory lists an earlier Bagley site as gone. Not confirmed as the same structure that was replaced.Sources: centraluslookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org
  2. 1939 BuiltOctober 1939 per the state record and NHLR. A July 1939 newspaper item reports work under way on a new tower at Bagley.Sources: wisconsinhistory.org, nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 2009
  4. 2009 Last staffedDNR spring fire-season staffing ended; the state record gives no reasonSource: wisconsinhistory.org
  5. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 19, 2017 as US 1209, WI 15Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 Bagley fire tower stands on Depot Lane in the Bagley area of Oconto County, Wisconsin. The state's Architecture and History Inventory dates it to October 1939, lists the Wisconsin Conservation Commission as its architect, and says the Department of Natural Resources staffed it during the spring fire season until 2009.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a standard Wisconsin tower, 100 feet tall, with its ladder on the outside and protected, and gives the same October 1939 build date.2

The record may hide an earlier tower. A federal survey station description, written in 1934, calls the station the center of the Bagley fire lookout and describes a 73-foot steel tower erected there in 1932.3 A lookout directory lists an earlier Bagley site, marked "first," as gone.4 A July 1939 Green Bay Press-Gazette item, quoted on a Forest Lookouts page, reports that work was under way on a new tower at Bagley.3 The sources do not say whether the 1939 tower replaced the 1932 one.

The tower has not been demolished, and the state record says it is not on the National or State Register.1 The Register recorded it on June 19, 2017, as US 1209, WI 15.2

In a Wisconsin Public Radio report, DNR officials said the state will no longer use its 72 fire lookout towers. The DNR plans to add airplane monitoring instead, and officials said 90 percent of forest fires are now reported by citizens.5 The report is undated in the copy read, so the timing of that decision is not confirmed here.

A Wisconsin travel article calls the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower in the Nicolet forest the last Wisconsin fire tower that visitors can still climb.6 That is a different, National Register-listed tower in the same county, so do not confuse the two.7 The sources read give no current access rules for the Bagley tower, so this account cannot say whether the public may approach it. Anyone curious should ask the DNR before going near the site.

  1. Bagley Fire Tower, Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, Wisconsin Historical Society, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI234013 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bagley Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/bagley-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bagley, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/bagley.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Alphabetical list of Wisconsin lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. DNR Officials Will No Longer Use Fire Lookout Towers, Wisconsin Public Radio, https://wpr.org/history/conflicts-disasters/dnr-officials-will-no-longer-use-fire-lookout-towers (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Climbing the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower in Wisconsin's Nicolet Forest, We Wisconsin (wewisconsintravel.com), https://www.wewisconsintravel.com/breathtaking-views-from-mountain-fire-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  7. Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, Wisconsin Historical Society, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI28224 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bagley Lookout
Photo: Brian Ziegler, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links centraluslookouts.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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.