FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Oneida County, Wisconsin

Squirrel Hill Lookout

84-foot Wisconsin standard tower near Minocqua dated to September 1939 by the register; a 1934 newspaper item mentions an unused tower on the hill. 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 towerWisconsin 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
84 ft (25.6 m)
Elevation
1,730 ft (527 m)
Agency
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Oneida County, Wisconsin
Coordinates
45.83123, −89.89875
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wi-squirrel-hill

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 3.9 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 EventDecember 1934 Oshkosh Daily Northwestern item, quoted on Central US Lookouts, mentions an unused fire tower at Squirrel HillSource: centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 BuiltBuilt September 1939 per the register; a December 1934 newspaper item mentions an unused fire tower on Squirrel Hill, so the date conflicts or an earlier tower may have stood thereSources: nhlr.org, centraluslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 2017
  4. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017; nominated by Tyler BormannSource: 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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources administers the Squirrel Hill lookout, an 84-foot tower of the state's standard design near Minocqua Winter Park in Oneida County, with an outside ladder the register describes as protected.1 The register gives its construction as September 1939 and lists the site at 1,730 feet.1 Wikipedia calls Squirrel Hill the highest point in Minocqua, at 1,735 feet.2

The sources disagree about the start date. A December 1934 item in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern describes two young deer hunters who had been lost since Friday and were found after a night in an unused fire tower at Squirrel Hill, west of Minocqua.3 If that tower is this one, either the 1939 date is wrong or an earlier tower stood on the hill before the 1939 structure.3 The sources I checked do not settle which.

The register accepted the tower on June 9, 2017, on a nomination by Tyler Bormann.1 A Wisconsin lookout list still shows it as standing.4

A 2015 Associated Press report said dozens of the state's forest-fire towers, most dating to the 1930s and 1940s, were being decommissioned. The part of that article I could read does not name this tower.5

Today I found no source about staffing, notable fires, or whether the public may climb or rent the tower. Check with the Wisconsin DNR before any visit, and do not go up a tower that is closed to the public.

  1. Squirrel Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wi/squirrel-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Minocqua, Wisconsin, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minocqua,_Wisconsin (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Squirrel Hill, Central US Lookouts, https://centraluslookouts.weebly.com/squirrel-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Wisconsin Lookouts (alphabetical list), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wi/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Wisconsin Decommissioning Fire Outlook Towers, Associated Press via CBS Minnesota, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/wisconsin-decommissioning-fire-outlook-towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Squirrel Hill 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, 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.