Fire lookout · Marinette County, Wisconsin
Dunbar Lookout
Marinette County, WI 100-foot DNR standard tower built October 1939; NHLR US 1199 (2017); listed as gone with no removal date or site description found.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone by the Forest Fire Lookout Association; no removal date and no description of the site found
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
- sources disagree
- Type
- Cab on a tower100-foot Wisconsin standard tower with external protected ladderThe design: Wisconsin standard tower
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1939
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 1,305 ft (398 m)
- Agency
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Marinette County, Wisconsin
- Coordinates
- 45.66512, −88.10997
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wi-dunbar
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.
Downloads about 3.6 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
- 1939 BuiltNHLR 'Built' field and description give October 1939Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1939 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017 as US 1199, WI 11Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Dunbar Lookout stood in Marinette County, and the National Historic Lookout Register dates its construction to October 1939.1 The register describes a 100-foot Wisconsin standard design with a protected ladder on the outside, and it lists the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as the administering agency.1 The register added the tower in June 2017.1
The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Wisconsin list now marks the tower as gone.2 In December 2015 the DNR announced it would retire all 72 of its fire towers, and Door County Pulse reported that unsold towers would be torn down.3,4 Neither of those reports names the Dunbar tower.3,4
No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether visitors can reach it.1,2
- Dunbar Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/dunbar-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Wisconsin Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Fire towers retired across Northwoods, WLUK FOX 11, https://fox11online.com/news/local/northwoods/fire-towers-retired-across-northwoods (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- DNR Decommissioning All Wisconsin Fire Towers, Door County Pulse, https://doorcountypulse.com/dnr-decommissioning-wisconsin-fire-towers/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Gone
- NHLR: Standing
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 1199 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Fire towers retired across Northwoods (WLUK FOX 11) (opens another site)
- DNR Decommissioning All Wisconsin Fire Towers (Door County Pulse) (opens another site)
- FFLA Wisconsin lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 353893460 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.