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Fire lookout · Marinette County, Wisconsin

Middle Inlet Lookout

Marinette County, WI 100-foot tower built October 1939 for the WDNR; state retired towers in 2015 and the county took liability; FFLA lists it as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FFLA's Wisconsin list marks the tower as gone; no removal date or description of the site today found in sources read

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 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
1939
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
795 ft (242 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Marinette County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.30007, −87.83930
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-middle-inlet

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 3.8 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 October 1939 per NHLR. A 1954 USGS survey description on the Forest Lookouts page refers to a Middle Inlet tower with 1935 attached; unresolvedSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 2015
  3. 2015 ClosedDNR decommissioned fire watch towers across the state; the Marinette County towers near Cedarville and Middle Inlet were part of that decisionSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 2016 EventMarinette County Forestry and Parks Committee approved a plan to remove the fire towers (Bay Cities Online article dated February 5, 2016, quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017; nominated by Tyler BormannSource: nhlr.org
  6. 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.

Middle Inlet Lookout was a 100-foot Wisconsin standard tower in Marinette County.1 It had a protected ladder on the outside, and the register gives the site an elevation of 795 feet, or 242 meters.1 The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources administered it, and the register says it was built in October 1939.1

A 1954 federal survey description of a benchmark at the site refers to a Middle Inlet tower with the year 1935 attached, which would be earlier than the register's date. The sources we read do not explain the difference.2

The Wisconsin DNR decommissioned its fire watch towers across the state in 2015.2 A news report from February 2016, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, said that, as a result of the DNR decision, Marinette County had become liable for the two unmanned towers in the county, the ones near Cedarville and Middle Inlet.2 The county's forestry and parks committee approved a plan to remove the towers, and the DNR was willing to pay for the work.2

Statewide, the DNR retired 72 towers permanently.3 The report says the towers are no longer structurally safe for personnel, that replacing them is prohibitively expensive, and that all 72 will be closed in the spring.3

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Wisconsin list now marks the Middle Inlet tower as gone, and we found no source describing what, if anything, remains at the site today.4

  1. Middle Inlet Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/middle-inlet-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Middle Inlet, Forest Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/middle-inlet.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fire towers retired across Northwoods, WLUK FOX 11, https://fox11online.com/news/local/northwoods/fire-towers-retired-across-northwoods (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Wisconsin Lookouts (by County), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/wi-co/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Middle Inlet Lookout
Photo: Brian Ziegler, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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

  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.