Exploring North Carolina's Lookout Towers: A Guide to Hikes and Vistas

By Peter J. Barr and Kevin Adams

A hiking guide and photography book on North Carolina’s lookout towers.

In the 1920s and 1930s, forestry organizations built dozens of lookout structures in Western North Carolina as the backbone of a fire fighting system. Many of these lookouts survive in North Carolina today—and though decommissioned, they represent some of the best destinations for hikers who want to see the incredible vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Part hiking guide and part photography collection, this book contains wonderful stories about the history and folklore of the lookouts and their fire lookout inhabitants, a detailed guide of hikes to each, and details about the views at the top—all provided by a local, long-term land preservationist and lookout fanatic Peter J. Barr. Barr’s text is augmented by the amazing full color photographs of well-known nature photographer Kevin Adams (North Carolina Waterfalls).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blair
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781949467567

Book preview

PREFACE

If this is your first time exploring western North Carolina’s lookout towers, welcome! Boundless adventures, spectacular panoramas, and fascinating history await you. I couldn’t be more honored that you would let me guide you to them.

Used in remote locations to detect forest fires from afar, the lookout towers featured in this book once stood as sentinels over southern Appalachian forests. Today, they remain monuments to the value of our public lands and natural resources. In this book, you can journey to 28 of western North Carolina’s lookout towers, learn about their past, and behold the magnificent grandeur of their views. In addition, although many of western North Carolina’s lookouts have been removed over the past several decades, the summits upon which they formerly stood still have spectacular views worth visiting, and their former towers have fascinating stories also worth appreciating. The book contains history, hikes, and views to eight of those former tower sites, as well.

I wrote the book not only to share with you the experiences and history of these venerable structures, but also to bring awareness to the need for their better upkeep and restoration. The chapter on Lookout Towers in Peril will show you how far we’ve come in that regard, and also how far we have to go.

I hope this book will enrich your appreciation of the towers and enhance your experiences visiting them. In addition to providing you the details of each tower and the hike to reach it, I’ve included many personal accounts of tower watchmen and -women, who will transport your imagination to their view from the top in the towers. The stunningly beautiful photography of Kevin Adams and handsome cartography of Jack Henderson will only enhance these perspectives. History, beauty, and adventure await you within these pages—enjoy the views!

Early US Forest Service lookout station and telephone in North Carolina. US Forest Service

CHAPTER ONE

History of Lookout Towers in Western North Carolina

Our government established the US Forest Service in the early 1900s to manage over 63 million acres of federal forest land. Shortly after that, in the summer of 1910, fires ravaged forests in Montana and Idaho. Lightning strikes in remote locations caused hundreds of individual fires, many of which went undetected for several days and grew to massive proportions. In the end, 5 million acres of forest were burned, and about 8 billion board feet of timber were destroyed. This event received national attention, and fire prevention and control became of paramount importance.

The need for fire detection and suppression wasn’t isolated to newly acquired federal forest lands. Commercial timbering was a voracious industry in the early twentieth century, and the demand for lumber was enormous. With the manufacturing needs of World War I, and later World War II, the demand only grew. Large timber corporations owned millions of acres of productive forests, and a forest fire that got out of control could rapidly destroy vast amounts—or all—of their crop. That was bad for business—forest fires were economically devastating.

Many of these larger commercial timber-owning companies developed protective associations to prevent, detect, and manage forest fires. In western North Carolina, these started in the 1910s and 1920s and included the Tablerock, Elk Creek, and South Mountains Protective Associations. Large logging companies in the Great Smoky Mountains, such as the Montvale Lumber Company, also struggled with damaging forest fires and similarly pursued fire detection to protect their holdings.

Ultimately, whether the forests were public or private, their protection was for the benefit of all—and the government ultimately took action. The US Forest Service, which today manages more than 193 million acres of forest, and the North Carolina Forest Service, which is responsible for oversight of nearly 14 million acres of privately owned woodlands in North Carolina, needed to develop a system of fire protection for vast areas with limited access and resources. Quick response to what might start as small fires was essential to protect valuable commercial forest acreage, as well as water quality, topsoil, wildlife habitat, and other precious natural resources. And since the federal government was also creating forest reserves for the benefit of future generations, it could not afford to lose those reserves to forest fires.

Forest fires are the greatest enemy of North Carolina’s timber resources, wrote North Carolina’s first state forester, J. S. Holmes, who subsequently formed the Forest Fire Prevention and Suppression organization in 1915. From this small beginning has grown the present organization, he wrote in 1926, referring to the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development—which would eventually evolve into the North Carolina Forest Service and North Carolina State Parks (First Biennial Report 1926). (For the sake of simplicity, that original agency is hereafter referred to as the NC Forest Service, regardless of its name or scope at the time of reference.)

Early Fire Detection Efforts

Fire detection efforts were given a dramatic boost in 1924 with passage of the Clarke-McNary Act, which provided federal reimbursement to individual states for up to 50 percent of funding expended for the purpose of forest fire prevention. This opened the flood gates for the proliferation of state-led fire detection efforts, as well as state-sponsored initiatives among private landowners such as funding the aforementioned forest protective associations.

Subsequently, private forest protective associations began to establish lookout stations atop peaks in western North Carolina. At first, these stations were simply high vantage points, with no added structure such as a cabin or tower. Instead, only telephone lines were run to these points to enable quick communication should a spotter sight distant smoke. The US Forest Service had begun sending watchmen to high North Carolina summits in the 1910s. In the Nantahala National Forest, the elevated vantage points of Satulah Mountain and Siler Bald were used as lookout stations. Privately, a manned lookout station with a phone line was established atop Little Shuckstack in the Great Smoky Mountains by the Montvale Lumber Company, prior to the creation of the national park. Watchmen used alidades, instruments used to sight distant objects using line of sight, to pinpoint the location of smoke that they detected in the valleys below. Several of these were mounted on lookout station summits, such as on Satulah Mountain and Wayah Bald, well before their towers were erected.

In the early 1920s, log cabins were constructed at some of these lookout stations, which not only provided overnight shelter for the watchmen, but also afforded them a higher vantage point from their roofs. In the Nantahala National Forest, cabins like these occupied the summits of Standing Indian Mountain, Albert Mountain, and Wesser Bald; another was built on Pilot Mountain in the Pisgah National Forest.

In 1925, J. S. Holmes proposed the creation of the Appalachian Forest Research Council to coordinate the efforts of the various protective associations and other private woodland owners in the mountains of North Carolina. Among the results of this coordination was the establishment of many new lookout stations and eventually the erection of several wooden lookout towers.

The Fire Tower Era in Western North Carolina

In the mid- to late 1920s, forestry services realized the practicality of fire towers, and soon they became the standard strategy for aiding fire detection. The elevated vantage point, protection from the elements, and often the ability for personnel to live on-site were all major advantages. The towers also became visual symbols of fire control and natural resource protection and thus helped develop and sustain public awareness of the importance of forest fire prevention.

Early towers were built of wood, often chestnut logs. These lookouts were erected on many summits, including one on Wayah Bald, which was built by the US Forest Service, and those at Pinnacle Mountain and Biggerstaff Mountain, which were built by the NC Forest Service and South Mountains Protective Association. Perhaps as early as 1906, a fire lookout tower had been constructed privately on Little Scaly; if the date is correct, it was the first tower built for fire detection in western North Carolina.

Cabin for lookout station on Siler Bald in Nantahala National Forest, 1925. US Forest Service

The NC Forest Service helped fund the erection of a steel tower on the summit of Mount Mitchell in 1925 with state funds, though the tower collapsed unexpectedly after a winter storm only a few months later. When it was replaced in 1927 with a privately funded stone observation tower, the NC Forest Service classified it as its first official fire lookout and helped fund the salary of the park warden, who lived at the summit and added fire detection to his duties.

In 1927, the NC Forest Service reported that the erection of ten lookout towers marks the beginning of what should develop into a statewide fire detection system. Five of those towers were in western North Carolina. That same year the agency made the bold announcement of a ten-year program providing for the erection of 125 fire towers in the state to complete the primary detection system and adding that the plan would fit in with the system of lookouts already being used on the national forest. In addition, the agency gained considerably from cooperation with the US Forest Service, which had a system for reporting fires that were visible from federal lookout points but were not in the national forest (Second Biennial Report 1928, 29).

Declaring in 1928 that the State owes a duty to its future citizens to safeguard the heritage of natural wealth that the blessings thereof shall not be denied to those who come after us, the NC Forest Service erected steel towers on Dugger Mountain and Hibriten Mountain. The NC Forest Service also established a lookout station on top of the open, rocky summit of Table Rock Mountain, where no tower was needed, along with a watchman’s cabin about a half mile away. Steel lookouts were then built by the NC Forest Service on Spivey Mountain, Horse Ridge, and Pores Knob in 1929.

That same year, the US Forest Service erected a steel fire tower on Camp Creek Bald. Unlike the NC Forest Service, which was constructing narrow steel towers and adjacent log cabin residences for the watchman, the US Forest Service preferred towers with live-in cabs since their lookout locations were much more remote and isolated. A live-in cab enabled the watchman to occupy the post for several weeks at a time without interruption to his or her duties. These towers were often not as tall as NC Forest Service towers, since many were positioned on treeless grassy or rocky summits.

Lookout ground houses, which included living quarters, were also used by the US Forest Service on summits with unobstructed views, where towers themselves weren’t needed. US Forest Service lookouts were equipped with Osbourne fire finders, a specialized apparatus consisting of a round table with a map, a compass, and an alidade sighting device, to more accurately determine the location of a fire.

Watchmen in the towers and the ground houses detected fires by scanning the horizon with binoculars or the naked eye. When they spotted smoke, they took a compass reading with an alidade to estimate its location, and then, if the smoke was also spotted from another lookout, the operators of both could determine the fire’s exact location by triangulation. The fire’s location was then reported by phone, and by radio starting in the 1940s, and smoke chasers (personnel sent to the scene to verify the location of the fire and assess its severity) were dispatched to investigate. If necessary, firefighters were then sent to the scene. Lookout towers were typically manned during fire season, from October to May

By 1932, the NC Forest Service was reporting that the lookout system is not keeping pace with needs (Fourth Biennial Report 1932) due to large quantities of private forest lands still not within visible detection range compounded by the increase in forest fires throughout the state. By that time, the US Forest Service had also placed lookout towers on Green Knob, Rich Mountain, and Chestnut Knob, while the National Park Service and the US Indian Service (now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) had partnered to erect a steel lookout on Barnett Knob, just outside the still-forming Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Because the focus of the NC Forest Service was largely to safeguard timber on privately owned properties, these agencies were implementing fire detection systems on federally owned lands.

With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s and nearly one-third of the country’s available workforce unemployed, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt put Americans back to work with his New Deal for America proposal. Passed by Congress not long after his inauguration in 1933, the New Deal legislation included the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act. The law included the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which Roosevelt promised would provide 250,000 young men employment in various fields, including forestry (the workers were thus also known as Roosevelt’s Tree Army).

Lookout station on Satulah Mountain, 1916. E. S. Shipp, US Forest Service

Roosevelt trumpeted the CCC’s benefit to our nation, now and later: I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only though the prevention of great present financial loss but also as a means of creating future national wealth (Roosevelt 1933). Fire control and prevention—most notably through the wide-scale implementation of a fire lookout network—fit well into the CCC’s objectives.

From 1933 to 1942, enrollees erected 68 fire towers for the NC Forest Service and about 35 lookouts for the US Forest Service and the National Park Service in North Carolina. Additionally, crews built hundreds of miles of trails and roads to access these towers and brought in thousands of miles of telephone lines to connect them. Nationwide, the CCC constructed 611 lookout towers, which were especially known for their ornate stone masonry. Examples of this masonry can still be seen at Wayah Bald, Yellow Mountain, Mount Cammerer, and Duckett Top.

In 1934, after only the first year of available ECW funding and the CCC’s efforts in North Carolina, the NC Forest Service noted that conservatively, North Carolina’s forestry program had progressed at least a decade, as measured by the past, as a result of assistance from the federal government (Fifth Biennial Report 1934).

By the end of the CCC-era in 1942, the NC Forest Service had 20 towers in western North Carolina, the US Forest Service had 27, the National Park Service 6, and the US Indian Service 2, for a total of at least 55 fire lookouts across the mountains. By 1948, the NC Forest Service had erected 110 lookouts across North Carolina, and in 1966, it had 146 lookouts—though most additional towers had been erected in the North Carolina piedmont and coastal plain. J. S. Holmes’s vision for a comprehensive fire detection network had been realized.

Fire Towers Today

Lookout towers remained the primary source of fire detection for 30 years for the National Park Service (until the 1960s), 40 years for the US Forest Service (1970s), and more than 60 years for the NC Forest Service (1990s). Beginning in the mid-1960s, the National Park Service and US Forest Service began routine air patrols during fire season and soon decommissioned most of their fire towers. Planes provided a far greater detection range and eliminated the cost of employing many watchmen in the towers.

The NC Forest Service also began supplementing fire detection from their lookouts with airplanes, though its decommissioning of its towers was one or two decades behind that of the other agencies since private lands were more expansive and spread across greater areas of the state. While the US Forest Service continued to staff its towers at times of high fire risk or extreme haze through the 1980s and 1990s, the NC Forest Service did so into the 2000s. By then, the prevalence of cellular phones and ever-improving cell coverage allowed agencies as well as the public to report fires from just about anywhere. Today, almost all fires are reported by the general public via phone, which proves to be especially efficient since it is both quick and without cost.

After being decommissioned, the majority of the lookout towers in the state deteriorated, victims of neglect and vandalism. About a third of all lookout towers in western North Carolina have been dismantled, and another third have had their access restricted or been partially taken down in a statewide trend that will likely persist with their continued deterioration. There remain about two dozen towers in western North Carolina. Curious hikers can still climb these towers, enjoy their views, and appreciate their history. These fire lookout towers are chronicled in the pages that follow.

Watchman in a fire tower, sighting smoke through an alidade on a fire finder table, 1938. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives

Forest Fire Lookout Association and National Historic Lookout Register

Founded in 1990, the Forest Fire Lookout Association was developed to preserve fire lookout towers for their historical significance, scenic value, and cultural heritage. Until then, the country was losing its former lookout towers at a rate greater than one per week. Most were well over 50 years old, the majority of them erected by the CCC. The organization, which is comprised of state and regional chapters, facilitates efforts of local organizations and tower enthusiasts to restore fire lookouts in partnership with federal and state agencies. It also conducts lookout research and promotes public awareness of fire towers around the country.

The Forest Fire Lookout Association also maintains the National Historic Lookout Register, a private register designed to recognize the towers as historic structures and preserve their histories. The register is a cooperative effort of the Lookout Association, the National Forestry Association, the State Historic Preservation Offices, the US Forest Service, and state forestry agencies. Because it is a private, nonprofit entity, listing on the National Historic Lookout Register does not grant any legal or effective protections for, or impose and restrictions upon, a lookout tower. However, such a listing is often a first step toward nomination to the federally administered National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the US Department of the Interior. Most towers used for fire detection that are chronicled in this book are listed on the National Historic Lookout Register.

Forest Fire Lookout Association members include lookout enthusiasts, hikers, conservationists, forest fire personnel, foresters, and others who seek to preserve the heritage that these structures represent. The organization holds no political affiliation and does not lobby for retention of lookout jobs.

The North Carolina chapter of the association promotes lookout tower access, researches and documents lookout tower history, and initiates restoration projects on lookout towers in western North Carolina. Since 2008, it has facilitated the restoration of 11 lookout towers in western North Carolina.

It also offers annual memberships, and accepts donations for its mission and restoration projects. If you love the towers as I do, please join me in supporting their preservation and restoration by finding out more, becoming a member, and donating online at nclookouts.com.

Author assisting with restoration of Duckett Top lookout tower in 2009. Wes Greene

CHAPTER TWO

Lookout Towers in Peril

Fire lookouts in North Carolina are disappearing. Their use for fire detection is long past. Most towers have been abandoned and have fallen victim to vandalism and neglect. About a third of the lookouts that once stood in the state are gone forever. Others are so badly deteriorated that public access is now restricted, and many of those face imminent removal. Once that happens, their views are gone forever, too. Most people take the towers for granted, assuming that these structures in our national parks, national forests, and other public lands are still maintained for their future enjoyment. Sadly, this is far from the case.

Because of the Forest Fire Lookout Association and its mission to preserve the lookouts, there have been some bright spots. Since 2008, the North Carolina chapter of the association has made the restoration of ten fire lookouts possible: Rich Mountain, Duckett Top, Green Knob, Fryingpan Mountain, Wayah Bald, Albert Mountain, Cowee Bald, Joanna Bald, Panther Top, and Yellow Mountain. Each of these projects is described farther on in this book.

There have been other successes, too. The North Carolina chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association fought construction of a 100-foot free-standing radio tower on the tiny summit hosting the Duckett Top lookout tower—and won. The organization helped fund the repair of damage at the Mount Cammerer lookout tower. And the Shuckstack lookout received some maintenance—albeit just enough to keep it accessible for a few more years.

Much work remains to be done to save North Carolina’s remaining towers. Shuckstack still needs your help. So does Mount Sterling. And despite the landmark restoration success of its past, Mount Cammerer is worse for the wear. Access was lost to Mount Noble, Chambers Mountain, and Walker Top lookouts. Duckett Top still isn’t open to the public. Fire towers at Big Knob, Tryon Peak, Rich Mountain, Mount Jefferson, Boone, and Pinnacle were taken down since the first publication. Then, too, all of the lookouts that have been restored remain vulnerable to the extreme weather on their high, exposed summits, as well as to suffer senseless vandalism.

Here’s the bottom line: the lookouts in this book will not continue to stand without the help of those who enjoy them. The fact that they are not used for fire detection today guarantees that government agencies will continue to pay scant attention to them or provide for their upkeep. Left in poor condition, they are all too often viewed as liabilities. None of them is immune to deterioration or removal.

Sunrise over lands in Hickory Nut Gorge forever protected by Conserving Carolina.

You can help. Let the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, and the NC Forest Service know the value of maintaining and restoring these towers. Contact the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, and similar organizations as well. Join the Forest Fire Lookout Association to keep up with the status of North Carolina’s lookouts and donate to their preservation projects. Support the nonprofits that benefit parks and lands that host the lookouts.

Help me make sure these towers are not only preserved, but revered and celebrated for generations to come.

Sunset viewed from Albert Mountain lookout tower.

CHAPTER THREE

How to Use This Guide

If you’re like most people, you want to get to the good stuff in a guidebook, so I’m going to spare you any long sections on preparation, equipment, and other how-tos for hiking. All of that information is important, but it is available online or from other guidebooks. I will, however, emphasize two things.

First, lookout towers can be dangerous! If you climb any of the lookout towers in this book, keep in mind that many of them are approaching a century in age. All too many of them are not routinely maintained, and they fall apart easily. Don’t assume that they will support your weight. Assess the condition of the structure and the risk you are willing to take to be on it. Be careful. Don’t lean on handrails thinking they won’t break. Don’t step in the center of a floor that could be rotten underneath. Use common sense, and proceed with caution.

I’m not trying to scare you. You should be fine. But since the lookouts are all pretty high up off of the ground, if something were to fail—whether that be the structure or your judgment—a fall would likely hurt (if not worse). One more thing: because fire towers are tall metal objects that stick out from the tops of mountains, they become lightning magnets during thunderstorms. Don’t be anywhere near a lookout tower when such a storm arrives.

Second, respect these towers and mountains! When you visit these lookouts, please don’t carve your name on them, or leave trash inside or around them, or behave in a way that will have a negative impact on the experience of others or contribute to their being closed to public access. Others who come after you will wish to enjoy the environment and history as much as you have. Leave everything as you would like to have seen it when you came.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s move on to how this guide works.

Facts and Figures

TOWER TYPE AND HEIGHT

The entry for each lookout tower begins with information about the structure including its type, height, and number of stairs. Builders used several different architectural designs for North Carolina lookout towers. The most common is the heavy galvanized steel Aermotor tower. The Aermotor Company (see sidebar for Rendezvous Mountain lookout tower in chapter 8), based in Chicago, Illinois, converted its galvanized steel windmills into fire towers, replacing the wind turbine at the top with a small (7' × 7'), usually covered lookout cabin, or lookout cab. A steep staircase inside the skeletal frame of the tower rose from the ground to the cabs, which added nine feet in height to the structure themselves. Whereas the NC Forest Service preferred the towers manufactured by Aermotor, the National Park Service preferred those made by the International Derrick & Equipment Company (IDECO), which were similar in design. The latter are found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In order to protect national forest lands, the US Forest Service built lookout towers on isolated mountaintops. For this reason, live-in cabs were practical. Hence, the cab housed not only fire detection and communications equipment but also a bed and a stove for cooking and heating. The most common live-in cab design was the Lookout Model 4 or L-4, which consisted of a 14' × 14' cab with a pyramidal roof on a steel tower usually consisting of two to four stages and measuring 21 to 40 feet in height.

Lookout houses were also used on summits with unobstructed views such the top of a bald mountain or a rocky promontory, where towers themselves were not needed to gain a vantage point over trees. Similar in concept to the L-4, they had living quarters that doubled as the lookout room. Several early designs included a cupola used as the lookout and a bottom room used as living quarters. This model resembled a small church with a belfry. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped to construct several lookout houses of either one or two stories with ornate stone foundations.

For this book’s towers, the entry for number of stairs includes the steps leading up to the cab; it does not include the floor of the cab or lookout platform in its count. It also excludes any stairs not part of the tower structure itself, such as a concrete block at the base of a staircase.

All tower heights are measured from the ground to their cab floor, as is standard practice. This is an important point to bear in mind, because the total height of shorter lookouts, especially ground house lookouts, may be considerably more than their listed heights. For example, lookout houses formerly on Pilot Mountain, Table Rock Mountain, and Devils Nest had stone foundations that elevated their floors only about three feet—which is their listed height. However, when counting the height of the cab, these structures were around 15 feet tall. Aermotor and IDECO steel towers, as well as US Forest Service live-in lookout cabs, are similarly measured from the ground to the cab floor, meaning that a 60-foot tower is the height of where your feet are located if standing in their cabs. Aermotor towers cabs are usually nine more feet in height, and L-4 live-in cabs are typically even taller.

OWNERSHIP

Several different agencies own and administer the lookout towers across the state.

The NC Forest Service is responsible for the fire protection of all private forest lands—which in North Carolina cover 13.8 million acres! This state agency also owns and manages several state forests, including the Holmes and Rendezvous Educational State Forests and the DuPont State Recreational Forest.

The US Forest Service, a federal agency, is responsible for fire detection and control in the Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie, and Croatan National Forests, which together amount to 1.25 million acres. Several North Carolina towers in this book also include fire detection for Cherokee, Chattahoochee-Oconee, and Sumter National Forests, in Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, respectively, within their purview.

The National Park Service administers the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway.

Whiteside Mountain in autumn.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, formerly the US Indian Service, is responsible for lands on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.

North Carolina State Parks maintains observation lookout towers at Mount Mitchell and Hanging Rock state parks.

In addition, many lookout towers are privately owned, either adopted/transferred from one of the above agencies—most often the NC Forest Service—or purchased and erected privately on personal property.

CONDITION

Situated on high mountain peaks, lookouts are exposed to extremes of wind, rain, snow, ice, sun, and lightning. These conditions make constant maintenance necessary. But since most lookouts are no longer in use, funding for their regular upkeep is not usually available. Such neglect has left many of North Carolina’s lookout towers to deteriorate significantly. Poor structural condition increases liability concerns and usually leads to restricted access to the towers, and then their dismantling. Condition therefore bears on the safety and risks of climbing a tower, as well as the likelihood of its continued existence at its original location.

In this guide, the condition of lookouts is judged according to three grades:

Good: The tower is in acceptable physical condition. It has likely received restoration or regular maintenance within the last decade.

Fair: The tower has deteriorated substantially, usually in its cab and wooden stairs; it may also have been subject to vandalism. Regular maintenance and repairs can preserve the tower’s structure.

Poor: The tower has deteriorated significantly. Replacement of one or several components—including wooden stairs, roof, cab walls, windows, and metal hand railings—is necessary. In addition, vandalism may be severe. Liability is considered high by the ownership or managing agency, so restricted access or removal of the tower is likely, if it hasn’t already occurred.

The cautions about the risk of climbing deteriorating towers presented at the beginning of this chapter apply to all grades of towers.

ELEVATION

All elevations are gleaned from US Geological Survey quadrangle topographic maps using either a specific elevation measurement for a summit, such as a benchmark or spot elevation, or the average elevation of the summit’s highest contour (because each contour represents 40 feet, 20 feet added to the elevation of the contour would represent the average). For example, a summit for which the highest contour represented is 5,000 feet would have its average of 5,020 feet listed.

The Tower, the Mountain, and the Views

This section provides information about the lookout tower itself, usually including the year it was constructed, its design, height, years of active use, and history, as well as interviews or stories of former tower operators where possible. Details about the condition of the tower and past and future restoration projects are also provided.

In addition, coverage extends to the mountain and includes its elevation, boundaries, rankings, the history of the summit and its slopes before and during the existence of the tower, its name origin (if available), and information about former and current trails, especially if they are associated with the Appalachian Trail.

One of the best reasons to hike to a lookout tower is to marvel at its breathtaking 360-degree panoramas of the surrounding mountain landscape. The mountains of North Carolina are some of the most beautiful in the country. In autumn, the mountainsides erupt into a magnificent display of colors sometimes so intense that they appear to be on fire. Fall also provides cool temperatures and clearer, long-range views. It is without doubt a perfect time to hike to lookout towers.

Other seasons are still excellent for enjoying the views. Though winter can be bitterly cold, the crisp air usually allows more extensive views than any other time of year—sometimes more than 100 miles! Spring brings mild temperatures and the thrill of watching green return to the mountainsides from the bottom up. And although summer tends to be hazy, with reduced air quality, the verdant, forested slopes make the mountains particularly attractive. In both spring and summer, be aware of thunderstorms and lightning strikes, which can be deadly. In all seasons, winds at the top of the towers can be severe.

View at dusk from inside Yellow Mountain lookout tower.

In describing views from the towers, this book highlights visually prominent summits, provides information on the mountain ranges and their tallest peaks, and identifies former and current fire tower sites. Also listed are nearby towns, valleys, and various bodies of water.

Most descriptions stay within the 16-point compass rose and provide cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west), which are occasionally as specific as north-northwest. While spatial terms such as above, below, beyond, nearby, in the foreground, in the distance, and on the horizon are also used, it is especially helpful to have a compass with you. These days many hikers use the Peakfinder application on their cell phones, which identifies mountains. Although it is not necessary, the app can be an excellent supplement to the descriptions in this book, providing visual confirmation of what you are seeing, as well as identifying more distant and obscure summits. Sometimes, however, the Peakfinder app can create a bit of information overload by identifying absolutely every bump on the horizon, including many features not entirely discernible to the naked eye. But if you do use it, make sure to download the app’s map/peak data to your phone before you start your hike, since cell phone signals at the fire towers can be weak.

Hikes

Elevation gain: This number is calculated based on a US Geological Survey database of elevations of mountain summits and trailheads (see above). USGS topographic quadrangles were used to determine relative elevations where specific heights were unknown, as well as to account for extra elevation gained and lost during the hike en route to the summit. As a good rule of thumb, you should allow an extra hour of hiking time for every 1,000 feet of elevation gained.

Distance: The listed hiking distance provides the one-way mileage from the trailhead to the fire tower, unless specifically noted otherwise. If you are completing the hike as an out-and-back trip, make sure to double the distance and adjust for time. Also, be sure to account for any elevation gain on the return trip and the time and difficulty that it will add to the entire hike. Significant descents, albeit uncommon, on the way to the tower can turn into unexpected and strenuous ascents on the way back. Since you can drive to many towers, opportunities for shuttle hikes exist, and with many towers located on longer distance trails (like the Appalachian Trail) or within extensive trail networks (like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), towers can be incorporated into loop hikes and backpacking expeditions.

Difficulty: This subjective rating cannot take into account varying physical abilities, experiences, and conditions. But I’ll be honest with you: Every hike in this book involves climbing to the top of a mountain. You don’t go downhill to get to the tower, understood? You’re always going to have to hike uphill! Therefore, many hikes have the classification of strenuous because, by default, they climb a tall mountain from the bottom. But lucky for you, you can drive close to many of the towers featured in this book. And for those hikes listed as strenuous, many are relatively short and can be accomplished by people of most abilities, if they allow enough time. Therefore, do not be discouraged; the views from the top are worth the effort.

Trailhead directions and mileages are listed from the nearest major town or interstate. When feasible, there are also directions from alternate origins to improve accessibility. Using Google Maps to the town or roadway of origin can prove extremely useful. Note that in many cases, directions to trailheads themselves via Google Maps can be inaccurate due to incorrect data of Forest Service roads. This tool can be wildly useful for some trailheads, but make you want to pull your hair out for others. Not to mention, cell phone service can be spotty in the remote locations of the backroads that reach these towers and their trailheads, so written driving directions are still provided within this book to get you to their start the old-fashioned way. If nothing else, cross-reference the route of online mapping apps with the directions to ensure they match up. In many cases, apps may provide a better driving route than what is listed. Often this guide provides not the shortest route, but the simplest.

In addition, this guide provides detailed descriptions of the hiking routes to each lookout tower. Still, always keep in mind that trails and landmarks can change and that they can look a lot different from one season to another. Moreover, one hiker’s perception can be drastically different from another’s. That said, I’ll note that creating this book required multiple hikes to all of the featured towers in order to achieve the highest accuracy possible. Then, too, detailed descriptions and mileage landmarks will aid you in tracking your position on the trails.

For easy reference, mileages of trail landmarks are listed in bold (i.e., 1.5 miles), although detailed narrative content is also available. The Hikes sections for each tower are modeled after the venerable Hiking Trails of the Smokies brown book.

Because of the ever-changing nature of trails and their accessibility, it would be a good idea to check with the North Carolina chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, which maintains an updated log for all fire tower hiking trails and roads, before you go. You can find the most current information at nclookouts.com.

A Note from Photographer Kevin Adams

Creating the photos for this book has been a rewarding experience. In addition to helping a friend with a project I feel strongly about, the book presented opportunities to learn new techniques, acquire new skills, and exercise a passion for night photography. Indeed, lookouts make terrific subjects for employing a myriad of techniques for shooting both day and night.

With that said, photographers should understand that there are also multitudes of regulations that they must adhere to when visiting lookouts, and these laws differ according to the agency that manages the property. It is our responsibility to learn and abide by these rules as we take our photos.

I expect that some photographers will see the photos in this book and will want to create similar ones. If so, take note that regulations such as no trespassing, no littering, no visiting after hours, and no shooting in off-limits areas apply to all photo subjects. These are common and need no clarification. But there are two important issues that require your attention: the night photography and aerial photography, which demand extra caution.

Night photography: If the lookout is accessible to the public at night, as are most of those in the national parks and national forests, it is probably okay to photograph it at