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Fire lookout · Adams County, Wisconsin

Friendship (Skyline) Lookout

Also known as Friendship Mound (Skyline), Friendship Mound

A 100-foot Wisconsin standard tower built in 1939 near the village of Friendship, staffed each spring fire season until the state decommissioned its lookout network in 2015.

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. No source found describing public access or a maintained trail; treat as unstaffed DNR infrastructure, not a confirmed open climb.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerWisconsin standard tower, 100 ft, 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
1,294 ft (394 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Adams County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
43.98731, −89.81813
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-friendship-skyline

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 3.6 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

  1. 1939 BuiltBuilt December 1939 as a Wisconsin standard 100-foot towerSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 2015
  3. 2015 Last staffedStaffed intermittently each spring fire season until Wisconsin decommissioned its lookout network in 2015Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, December 6, 2017, as US 1259, WI 45Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Rising above the flat sand country of central Wisconsin, the Friendship tower is also historically known as Skyline.1 It went up in December 1939 as a 100-foot Wisconsin standard tower, reached by an external ladder enclosed in its own protective cage.1

For decades afterward it did the plain, essential work of a fire lookout. Rather than being staffed year-round, Friendship was watched intermittently each spring fire season, until 2015, when the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources decommissioned its statewide lookout network.1

The tower itself was left standing. In December 2017 it was added to the National Historic Lookout Register as US 1259, WI 45, a recognition of its place in the state's firefighting history rather than any renewed fire duty.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's own Wisconsin inventory likewise lists it simply as still standing.2 No source consulted here describes current public access or a maintained trail, so visitors should treat the tower as unstaffed infrastructure on DNR land rather than an open climb, and check locally before planning a visit.

  1. Friendship (Skyline) Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/friendship-skyline-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Wisconsin Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Friendship (Skyline) Lookout
Photo: Brian Ziegler, 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 -- 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, visiting details, 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.