FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Wisconsin

Rock Falls Lookout

1934 Aermotor fire tower near Tomahawk in Lincoln County, Wisconsin; state DNR administers it; NHLR-registered 2017. Current access and condition not found in sources.

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 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
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,668 ft (508 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Lincoln County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.33641, −89.71427
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-rock-falls

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 4.1 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. 1934 BuiltBuild year given in the Register entrySource: nhlr.org
  2. 1946 StaffedFire watcher photographed using a radio in the tower, October 1946Source: search.library.wisc.edu
  3. No record between 1946 and 2017
  4. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 19, 2017 as US 1212, WI 18Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Rock Falls Lookout is an Aermotor fire tower in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, near the town of Tomahawk.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 100-foot tower with a stairway in the Forest Service style, and gives 1934 as the year it was built.1

A WJFW feature on Wisconsin's fire towers says many of the towers still standing were built in the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corps crews.3 That article does not name Rock Falls, and we found no source that names who built this one.

In October 1946 a fire watcher was photographed using a radio in the tower. The photograph's record names him as Bernard Allen.2

The Register lists the tower as administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. It records the registration on June 19, 2017 as US 1212, WI 18, with Tyler Bormann as nominator.1,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.5

The same WJFW feature reports that 72 towers still in use were decommissioned in 2015, and that the state now watches its forests for fires from airplanes. It does not say what became of Rock Falls.3

We found no current source on access or condition, or on whether visitors may climb the tower. Anyone planning a visit should check with the Wisconsin DNR first.

  1. Rock Falls Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/rock-falls-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Fire spotter, photograph record, UW-Madison Libraries (UWDC), https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A4C2ED5VYNYCXB83 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. 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 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Rock Falls, Forest Lookouts (centraluslookouts.weebly.com), https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/rock-falls.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Wisconsin Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Rock Falls 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. 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, 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.