Fire lookout · Oneida County, Wisconsin
Indian Lake Lookout
Also known as Indian Lookout Tower
Oneida County, WI 100-ft Aermotor tower built 1936; sold and taken down in June 2017; the planned re-erection in New Richmond is not confirmed; the site is listed as gone.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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 Aermotor tower with a US Forest Service-style stairwayThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1936
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 1,721 ft (525 m)
- Agency
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Oneida County, Wisconsin
- Coordinates
- 45.80887, −89.29951
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wi-indian-lake
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 4.0 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
- 1936 BuiltNHLR and the 2017 article both give 1936.Sources: nhlr.org, indianlakeassociation.com
- No record between 1936 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017 (US 1196, WI 8). The registration predates the June 2017 removal described in the article.Source: nhlr.org
- 2017 RemovedSold right after DNR decommissioning and taken down over two days; the article is dated June 13, 2017. The buyers planned to re-erect it in New Richmond, WI.Source: indianlakeassociation.com
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Indian Lake fire tower stood in Oneida County, Wisconsin, at an elevation of 1,721 feet.1 The National Historic Lookout Register describes a 100-foot Aermotor tower with a US Forest Service-style stairway, built in 1936.1
Campers from a nearby girls' camp climbed it every summer as a rite of passage, and runners came to use its steps as a workout.2
A 2017 article says the DNR had decided to decommission its fire towers about a year and a half before the removal.2 WJFW reports that 72 aging towers still in use were decommissioned in 2015.3 The Indian Lake tower was sold right away and was one of the first taken down.2
A family from New Richmond, Wisconsin, bought it for $130 and took it down over two days in June 2017.2 They unbolted the top two-thirds and used a crane to lift that section off and set it in the road.2 After re-rigging, they lowered the rest of the tower onto a flatbed truck, where the lower section was marked and taken apart for the trip.2 The family planned to reassemble the lower section to match the original and reattach the top section on its property in New Richmond.2 The sources do not confirm that the work was finished.
A 2022 DNR inventory of the state's towers, summarized in the Forest Fire Lookout Association's 2025 Wisconsin report, counted 39 conveyed to private landowners and 19 demolished.4
The Wisconsin lookouts list marks the Indian Lake site as gone.5 The 2017 article calls the empty spot a hole in the Indian Lake skyline.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site, or whether it is open to the public.
- Indian Lake Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/indian-lake-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- The Day the Tower Came Down: June 13, 2017, Dave Noel, Indian Lake Association, http://www.indianlakeassociation.com/uploads/4/4/2/8/44289113/firetowerarticle_6.14.2017.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Connecting the dots: the fire towers of Wisconsin, WJFW, https://www.wjfw.com/news/connecting-the-dots-the-fire-towers-of-wisconsin/article_fd447056-4b4e-11ed-b245-cf384385e71f.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Wisconsin Chapter 2025 report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/cr-wi-2025.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Wisconsin lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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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
- 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- central US (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) 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
- 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, 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 1196 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- The Day the Tower Came Down: June 13, 2017 (Dave Noel) (Indian Lake Association) (opens another site)
- Connecting the dots: the fire towers of Wisconsin (WJFW) (opens another site)
- Wisconsin Chapter 2025 report (Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org)) (opens another site)
- FFLA Wisconsin lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Indian Lake (centraluslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 353894332 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.