Indiana Fire Towers (by Mark A)

Indiana Fire Towers

A detailed guide to the fire towers of Indiana

Covering the 40+ fire tower (lookout tower) sites of Indiana, with photos, maps, and historical information

Quick links

IN the Parks podcast episode about Indiana’s fire towers – Allison Martin interviews Teena Ligman (April 2025)

Teena Ligman’s latest public talk about Indiana fire towers on YouTube (March 2025)

Standing Indiana towers that you can climb: Ferdinand, Hickory Ridge, Lincoln, McCormick’s Creek, Mason Ridge, Ouabache, Skyline, Weed Patch, Willow Valley, Winamac, Wyandotte. Temporarily closed: Henryville.

My Story

My first interaction with a tower was the Hickory Ridge tower when I lived in Bloomington in the early 1990s and would visit Deam Wilderness.

From 2014 to 2024 I traveled to all the Indiana state parks with my brother, where we visited all the standing visitable towers, and visited many old non-standing tower sites. As of June 2024, I have been to (or near) 30 of these tower sites.


My initial interest was to find out where all the Indiana towers are/were. Secondary interest is in the history behind the towers.

Hope you enjoy the site.

– Mark Armantrout

Gallery of Indiana tower photos

Outdoor Indiana magazine September 1962 page 33, Paoli fire tower
Outdoor Indiana magazine January 1960 page 22, clipped picture of Pleasantville tower in Sullivan County
Lilly Hamblen Forest tower photo by Frank Hohenberger taken May 27 1931 (Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.)
Weed Patch tower photo by Frank Hohenberger taken July 14 1927 (Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.)
Spears tower, from Forest Service website page
Willow Valley tower historical photo taken from Living New Deal website
Historical photo of Lincoln tower, found at Living New Deal website
Historical photo of Wyandotte tower as seen on Living New Deal website
Old photo of Henryville tower from sign posted near the tower
Houston tower
Clip of black and white photo of Dutch Ridge tower, copied from Forest Service page about the tower
Black and white picture of Muscatatuck fire tower, from YouTube video about Muscatatuck Park
Marchand tower, color photo taken from Forest Service website
West Fork Lookout Tower, cropped image taken from Hoosier National Forest webpage, picture from 1963
Color photo of McCormick’s Creek tower from a display at the park’s nature center
Skyline lookout tower complete, personal photo
Historical photo of one of the Crane towers, from a book about the history of Crane in World War II
Picture of a fire tower from a sign at Versailles State Park, presumably of the tower there
Clip from Google Street View showing the Salem fire tower
Clipped photo of Jasper-Pulaski tower from Outdoor Indiana March 1939 cover
Cataract tower, clip of picture provided to me by Teena Ligman
Ferdinand tower picture, from FFLA Indiana chapter 2009 Annual Report, clipped
Part of an image of Ouabache State Park tower, taken from Living New Deal website
Cincinnati tower photo by Teena Ligman from FFLA Indiana chapter 2022 annual report, photo shows that much of the cab is missing
Mason Ridge tower from the air, historical photo of tower and CCC camp at Morgan-Monroe State Forest
Hartwell tower, taken from NHLR page for Hartwell Fire Tower, which attributes photo to Indiana Story Teller
Winamac tower in Tippecanoe River State Park, personal photo from September 2022
Hickory Ridge tower, personal photo from 2020
Wilbur tower, cropped picture, from newspaper article shared by Morgan County History Center and Museum
Personal photo of the eastern Crane fire tower from February 2025
Personal photo of the Indian Springs fire tower at Crane from February 2025

(31 photos in gallery above. Sadly no photos yet of Borden, Bryantsville/Georgia, Buzzard Roost, Five Points, German Ridge, Hickman Hill, Shoals.)

My list of 38+ Indiana tower sites

See my big list with all the tower sites in Indiana

My Google Map

I created a Google Map with all the sites

Resources and Tools

The resources and tools I used to research this. Key ones:

The colorful map

The black and white map

Mysteries

Some sources list tower sites that I have no evidence for.

Links

Visit other sites about fire towers. This Forest Service page is key.

My Illinois towers page

Thanks

None of this would have been possible without my brother Jeff.

Huge thanks to Teena Ligman too!

This is a personal website, not associated with any company or organization. I am not any sort of expert on this, just an enthusiast.

Site created in early 2024.