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Fire lookout · Forest County, Wisconsin

Rat Lake Lookout Site

Also known as Rat Lake (Sugarbush Hill), Sugar Bush Hill (Rat Lake)

Sugarbush (Rat Lake) Hill: CCC wooden tower built 1938, later steel Aermotor-style lookout; removed; only four footings remain on Potawatomi land.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Land belongs to the Forest County Potawatomi per FFLOS. Wikipedia says the peak is on their reservation and considered sacred. No source describes visiting rules.

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

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
No tower stands on the site, per FFLOS.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerLast lookout a steel stairway-style tower, likely an Aermotor MC-39 (FFLOS). The 1938 CCC tower was wooden, 101 ft 6 in tall (FFLOS).The design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Wood
Built
1938
Height
110 ft (33.5 m)
Elevation
1,938 ft (591 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (administrator per FFLOS); Forest County Potawatomi (property owners per FFLOS)
Land
Unknown
Location
Forest County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.55803, −88.81396
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-rat-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 3.7 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. 1938 BuiltCivilian Conservation Corps built a wooden tower, 101 ft 6 in tall, in January and February 1938, replacing a steel first lookout under 100 ft. The later steel tower has no recorded date.Source: firetower.org
  2. 1939 EventClyde H. Spencer, chairman of the town of Lincoln, held an 11-day sit-down atop the tower, March 2 to 13, to press for reopened fire lanes to Forest County lakesSources: centraluslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1939 and 1956
  4. 1956 EventWisconsin Historical Society placed a historical marker near the hill, per WikipediaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  5. No record between 1956 and 1980
  6. 1980 RemovedFFLOS 'Removed' field reads 'circa 1980s'. 1980 is only a sorting placeholder; no source gives that year (see corrections).Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1980 and 2019
  8. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 3, 2019 as US 1743, WI 2Source: firetower.org
  9. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Sugarbush Hill, also called Rat Lake Hill, is in Forest County.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says it sits at the second-highest elevation in the state and has held fire lookouts since the 1930s.2

The first lookout was steel and stood under 100 feet.2 The Civilian Conservation Corps then built a wooden tower of 101 feet 6 inches in January and February 1938.2 The register gives no date for the change, but the wooden tower was later replaced by a steel tower with a stairway, probably an Aermotor MC-39.2

The sources disagree on how tall the tower was. The register gives 101 feet 6 inches for the 1938 wooden tower. Newspapers from 1939, quoted on a local history site and reported by Wikipedia, put it at 110 feet.2,3,1

In March 1939 Clyde H. Spencer, chairman of the town of Lincoln, spent 11 days in an eight-foot cubicle at the top of the tower.3 He wanted the state conservation commission to reopen fire lanes leading to Forest County lakes.3 Wikipedia adds that some people thought the sit-down was staged for publicity.1

The register says the Wisconsin DNR used the lookout until the late 1980s or early 1990s, both as a lookout and as a radio link.2 It was then judged unnecessary, because lookouts nearby covered most of the same ground.2 The register dates the removal to about the 1980s, yet the same page has the lookout in use into the late 1980s or early 1990s, so its dates do not line up.2 Wikipedia reports that the tower has been taken down.1

According to the register, only four footings remain on the site, from the last Aermotor-style lookout; the earlier lookouts and a communications tower are gone.2 Wikipedia places the peak within the Forest County Potawatomi reservation and says that community considers it sacred.1 The register lists the Forest County Potawatomi as property owners.2 Wikipedia also reports that the Wisconsin Historical Society put up a marker near the hill in 1956.1 Nothing I read says whether the public may visit the hilltop.2,3,1

  1. Sugarbush Hill, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarbush_Hill (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Rat Lake Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wi/rat-lake-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Sugar Bush Hill, Forest Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/sugar-bush-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

1966 postcard
1966 postcard (1966)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Postcard from unknown date
Postcard from unknown datePhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1938 photo
1938 photo (1938)Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1938 photo of old tower from its replacement
1938 photo of old tower from its replacement (1938)Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1938 view looking east
1938 view looking east (1938)Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1958 view
1958 view (1958)Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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, 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.