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Fire lookout · Burnett County, Wisconsin

Danbury Lookout

Burnett County, WI tower: NHLR gives a November 1932 build, but an October 1930 item already describes a state fire tower there; listed gone, removal undated.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone on the Forest Fire Lookout Association's Wisconsin list. No source read gives a removal date or describes the site now.

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 sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower84-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
84 ft (25.6 m)
Elevation
1,104 ft (337 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Burnett County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.96428, −92.31827
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-danbury

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 its recorded height.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1930 EventAn October 20, 1930 newspaper item describes a state fire tower at Danbury with its crow's nest equipped for winter and the tower enclosed. This conflicts with the NHLR build date of 1932.Source: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltNHLR gives November 1932 as the build date.Source: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1932 and 2017
  4. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register August 28, 2017 (US 1249, WI 44).Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Danbury Lookout stood in Burnett County, Wisconsin, at an elevation of 1,104 feet.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes an 84-foot Wisconsin standard tower with an external protected ladder, built in November 1932.1

The record gets complicated there. An October 20, 1930 newspaper item, quoted on a lookout history site, already describes a state fire tower at Danbury.2 It describes the crow's nest as winterized, with the tower closed in and sliding windows fitted, and says a direct phone line connected Webster, Danbury, Gordon and Spooner.2 The 1930 and 1932 dates disagree.1,2

The register recorded the tower on August 28, 2017, and lists the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as its administrator.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Wisconsin list now marks the Danbury tower as gone.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today.

  1. Danbury Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/danbury-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Danbury - Forest Lookouts, Central US Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/danbury.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wisconsin lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Danbury Lookout
Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

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  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.

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.