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Fire lookout · Juneau County, Wisconsin

Necedah Lookout

Juneau County lookout; NHLR gives an 80-foot tower built at its present site in 1951, possibly replacing a 1939 tower. Staffed until 2015; listed as standing.

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.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80-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
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
1,100 ft (335 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Juneau County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
44.02285, −90.07233
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-necedah

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.

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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. 1927 EventNewspaper item reports a conservation warden seeking permission to erect a 64-foot observation tower on the Necedah bluff; no source read says it was builtSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 BuiltPer the 1940 statewide survey as the Register quotes it: an 84-foot steel ladder towerSource: nhlr.org
  3. 1951 BuiltCurrent tower built at its present location; the Register cannot say whether it replaced or rebuilt the 1939 structureSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1951 and 2015
  5. 2015 EventWisconsin took its 72 towers out of serviceSource: wjfw.com
  6. 2015 Last staffedIntermittent spring-season staffing ended when Wisconsin decommissioned its lookout networkSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 16, 2017 as US 1224, WI 28Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Necedah Lookout stands in Juneau County, Wisconsin, and the record of its early history is incomplete.1,2 A 1927 newspaper item, quoted on a Forest Lookouts web page, reports that a conservation warden wanted permission to put up a 64-foot observation tower on the Necedah bluff.3 A statewide tower survey from September 1940 records an earlier structure at the site: an 84-foot steel ladder tower built in 1939.2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower there now was built at its current location in 1951, but it cannot say whether the older structure was moved and rebuilt or whether a new tower went up.2

The Register describes the tower now standing as 80 feet tall, with an external protected ladder.2 It is listed as US 1224, WI 28, and the registration date was August 16, 2017.2 The listing gives the elevation as 1,100 feet, or 335 meters.2

The Register says the tower was manned irregularly during spring fire season until 2015, when the state shut its lookout network down.2 The Department of Natural Resources had said it would stop using its towers because it did not believe they were a safe or necessary tool for spotting wildfires.4 Its forest bureau director told Wisconsin Public Radio that the towers had been manned for just 17 days the previous year.4 WJFW dates the decision to 2015, when 72 towers still in use were taken out of service.5

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Wisconsin list still marks the Necedah tower as standing.1 Towers were generally offered at public auction twice, and any left unsold were to be torn down.6,7 As of November 2021, the association counted 39 towers conveyed to the landowners they stand on, a group that includes towers that reverted to the Menominee Tribe, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Military Affairs.7

The sources we read do not say who owns the Necedah tower now, whether it has been sold, or whether the public may visit or climb it. We found no rental listing either. Anyone planning a trip should confirm the owner and the access rules first, and should not climb the tower without permission.

  1. Wisconsin Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Necedah Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/necedah-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Necedah, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/necedah.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. DNR Officials Will No Longer Use Fire Lookout Towers, Wisconsin Public Radio (wpr.org), https://www.wpr.org/history/conflicts-disasters/dnr-officials-will-no-longer-use-fire-lookout-towers (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Connecting the dots: the fire towers of Wisconsin, WJFW (wjfw.com), https://www.wjfw.com/news/connecting-the-dots-the-fire-towers-of-wisconsin/article_fd447056-4b4e-11ed-b245-cf384385e71f.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. DNR Decommissioning All Wisconsin Fire Towers, Door County Pulse (doorcountypulse.com), https://doorcountypulse.com/dnr-decommissioning-wisconsin-fire-towers/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  7. 2021 Wisconsin FFLA Chapter Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-wi-2021.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

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

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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: height, 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, 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.