The Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower is situated on Hickory Ridge in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area of Indiana’s Hoosier National Forest. The 110-foot steel structure was built in 1936 and manned until the 1970s.
Indiana’s first fire tower was built in 1928 in Clark State Forest. The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed many more in the 1930s. After the Hoosier National Forest was established in 1935, the need for additional fire towers increased.
A major challenge in determining tower locations was the absence of detailed topographic maps. Indiana was one of the few states that hadn’t been fully mapped, so tower placement was often based on trial and error. After 20 towers were built, a visibility survey using precision instruments showed that three towers needed relocation, some needed to be raised by 20 feet, and eleven more were necessary.
By the early 1950s, Indiana had 33 fire lookout towers. However, changes in land use and the rise of aerial fire detection technology led to the towers’ decline. By the late 1970s, their use had largely been discontinued. As of 2024, only one fire tower remains in the national forest, with seven others still standing in state parks.
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