List of Indiana Fire Towers

Overview of my list of tower sites

I start with the “easy” ones. The first 13 can be visited. There is very little mystery about the first 13, because they are visible, on public land, and mostly climbable. Most of the standing towers are in state parks or state forests. They are clearly marked on maps. They’re easy to find. They’re often promoted to visitors.

After the “easy” 13, the list has towers that are still standing but often overlooked or incorrectly described as gone.

Then there are tower sites where the tower is gone but there is still clear evidence of the tower’s location.

Then the tower sites that are, to my knowledge, totally removed.

And finally, some sites mentioned online that are mysteries to me; and observation towers that I don’t count.

These are the towers that you can generally approach, visit, and possibly climb. These are easy to find and widely promoted.

I’ve climbed all of these (except Hartwell, which wasn’t in climbable condition when my brother and I visited it. Towers are periodically closed for maintenance.)

Hoosier National Forest:

Hickory Ridge (Deam Wilderness)

State Parks and State Forests:

These 12 towers are standing in Indiana state parks and forests:

North:

Winamac (Tippecanoe River State Park)

Ouabache (Ouabache State Park)

South:

McCormick’s Creek (McCormick’s Creek State Park)

Mason Ridge (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)

Weed Patch (Brown County State Park)

Skyline (Jackson-Washington State Forest)

Henryville (Clark State Forest)

Hartwell (Pike State Forest)

Ferdinand (Ferdinand State Forest)

Lincoln (Lincoln State Park)

Willow Valley (Martin State Forest)

Wyandotte (O’Bannon Woods State Park)

Some standing towers you can drive near, close enough to see, but can’t approach:

Salem

This tower is standing and visible, and can be approached by road. It is not on public property, and cannot be visited or climbed legally as far as I know.

Cincinnati

Most of this tower still exists, but the cab is pretty bad shape. It’s on private property.

There are other towers that are still standing, to some degree, but are not approachable by car.

Standing on inaccessible property

Lilly tower exists. It is on Indiana University property in Brown County but it is only accessible with permission (which I have not yet been able to obtain.) We have seen this tower through binoculars. (Lilly is not the same as Weed Patch in Brown County State Park.)

Standing in Crane Naval Depot

Crane: There are three standing towers or tower remnants in Crane, according to Google satellite views. I call these Crane 1, Crane 2, and Crane 3 in this website. Crane 3 is Indian Springs.

There are tower sites where at least one of the concrete base corners still exists but the tower is removed. I’ve been to all of these and seen that there is still evidence of the tower base.

Not standing, but base corners exist, somewhat approachable on public land:

Bryantsville aka Georgia (Hoosier National Forest)

Cataract (Owen-Putnam State Forest)

Dutch Ridge (Hoosier National Forest)

Five Points (Jefferson County)

German Ridge (Hoosier National Forest)

Marchand (Hoosier National Forest)

Muscatatuck aka Vernon (Jennings County)

From here on down, there is little or no physical evidence of the tower or base.

Not standing, but location accessible on public land

Versailles (Versailles State Park)

These old tower sites can be confirmed from maps and other research.

Not standing – North:

Jasper-Pulaski (Pulaski County)

Not standing – South:

Borden (Clark County)

Buzzard Roost (HNF, Perry County)

Hickman Hill (Floyd County)

Houston (Jackson County)

Paoli aka Valeene or Orange (Orange County)

Pleasantville (Sullivan County)

Shoals (Martin County)

Spears aka John Spears (Crawford County)

West Fork (HNF, Crawford County)

Wilbur (Morgan County)

In this section, there is no physical evidence of the tower that I know of, and the online research isn’t very definitive or consistent.

Appears on one topo map, with little other supporting evidence:

Salt Creek

The most unusual site for a fire tower was the Indiana State Fair! For many years starting in the mid 1930s, there was an 80-foot replica steel fire tower at the state fair grounds in Indianapolis. See pictures and stories on my History page.

There are some tower sites mentioned by others, that I am totally not sure about (as of October 2023.) I have not seen any evidence of these despite many hours spent looking through topographical maps.

Don’t exist as far as I can tell… yet…

Crane 4 (Martin County) – The USFS page lists a 4^th Crane tower, but I’ve seen no evidence yet.

Grandview – On Ron Kemnow’s list, but I have no idea about this. I’m not ever sure where in Indiana this is supposed to be.

Other Orange County one or two: Baker?

Bristow (Perry County) – mentioned on Forest Service website but I can find no evidence.

Another Mason Ridge site in Morgan County instead of Monroe County?

Scales Lake (Warrick County) – This is on Ron Kemnow’s list. There might have been a tower here but I haven’t seen it on a topo. Scales Lake State Beach was the name of this property in the 1950s. It was referred to just as Scales Lake on a 1936 map on the back of Outdoor Indiana magazine.

Final notes:

There is an observation tower at Clifty Falls State Park; I don’t consider this to be a lookout tower for my purposes. I’d call it an observation tower; that’s what it’s called on the Clifty Falls State Park map. As far back as 1936 it was referred to as an Observation Tower. It doesn’t appear on the colorful firetower map or the black-and-white firetower map, so I don’t think it’s been counted by others either.

There are two lookout towers at Brown County State Park, the North and West Lookout Towers. They’re great, but I’m not including them on my list. I’ve never seen them listed as fire lookout towers. They aren’t tall metal towers like all the others on my list. They are much shorter, wider, and of a completely different construction. I’ve never seen them associated with forest service or other fire protection activities. I’ve seen these referred to as observation towers, also.