ALABAMA LOOKOUTS
O'NEAL
Limestone County
Alabama Forestry Commission
Alabama Forestry Commission
April 11, 1971: "A 60-foot fire control tower will be erected about four miles north of Athens within the next 30 to 45 days, Limestone County Ranger Howard Swanner announced this week.
A team of rangers and Alabama Forestry Commission workers headed by Swanner will travel to Dahleonga, Ga., about 20 miles South of Gainesville, May 6 to begin dismantling the tower and moving it here.
Swanner said the tower has been declared surplus by the U. S. Forest Service and turned over to the state commission which assigned it to Limestone County.
Swanner said negotiations are underway to purchase property north of Athens on O'Neil Road at a site known as Four-Mile Hill. He said the spot was the best central location in the county for the tower because of the high level of the terrain.
The county ranger said the tower will be used as a communications center for fire fighting efforts in the area. It will be equipped with radio communications to patrol vehicles and area fire departments, and will have a telephone hook-up to which county residents can report fires." (Athens News Courier)
A team of rangers and Alabama Forestry Commission workers headed by Swanner will travel to Dahleonga, Ga., about 20 miles South of Gainesville, May 6 to begin dismantling the tower and moving it here.
Swanner said the tower has been declared surplus by the U. S. Forest Service and turned over to the state commission which assigned it to Limestone County.
Swanner said negotiations are underway to purchase property north of Athens on O'Neil Road at a site known as Four-Mile Hill. He said the spot was the best central location in the county for the tower because of the high level of the terrain.
The county ranger said the tower will be used as a communications center for fire fighting efforts in the area. It will be equipped with radio communications to patrol vehicles and area fire departments, and will have a telephone hook-up to which county residents can report fires." (Athens News Courier)
June 3, 1971: "Forest Ranger Howard Swanner and Jerry Gatlin investigate the first steps in construction of Limestone County's first fire tower. The tower, located on O'Neal Road, is being dismantled and removed from a forest in northeast Georgia. The 46-foot high structure will be rebuilt by a team of rangers and Alabama Forestry Commission workers and is scheduled for completion mid-July." (Athens News Courier)
July 4, 1971: "The first and only fire tower in Limestone County is receiving finishing touches before the fall 'fire season' begins in September.
The tower, an abandoned one in a forest area of northeast Georgia, was taken apart piece by piece and transported to it present location on O'Neal Rd." (Athens News Courier)
November 21, 1971: "The latest innovation in efforts to control fires in Limestone County is the O'Neal Fire Tower located west of Athens.
Alabama Forestry Commission officials Howard Swanner and Wallace Tucker began manning the 50-foot steel tower around the first of November in an effort to spot and thereby extinguish fires in the county.
The fire prevention program for Limestone County began three and a half years ago, but according to Swanner and Tucker, this county was the last in the state to get the program or a tower.
The tower now makes it possible to spot fires in any part of the county and with the available equipment the fires can be plotted and equipment dispatched in a matter of minutes." (Athens News Courier)
June 19, 2012: The 60-foot Aermotor MC-39 steel tower was dismantled and moved off site to a location where it will be stored until a new site can be found for the refurbished structure.