Horseblock Lookout Tower
US 1690, AL 80

Lookout Details

Registry Numbers US 1690, AL 80 (view other lookouts in United States, Alabama)
Date Registered July 24, 2022
Nominated by Jason Johns
Location Talladega National Forest
Cleburne County, Alabama
Coordinates N 33° 33.626' W 085° 41.950' (view using Google Maps)
N 33° 33' 38" W 085° 41' 57"
N 33.560439° W 085.699174°
Elevation 1,402 ft (427 m)
Built Unknown
Administered by USFS

Description

  • 100ft Aermotor Tower with a diagonal staircase 

Found on Ron Kemnow's website.

July 19, 1976:   "The son of a federal judge was killed Sunday, authorities said, by the premature explosion of a small homemade bomb he was carrying up the twisting stairs of a fire tower.
      Cleburne County Sheriff's Investigator Joe Jacks identified him as Robert Watson, 20, son of L. Chandler Watson, a federal referee in bankruptcy.
      Three other men who were watching as Watson climbed the tower atop Horse Block Mountain escaped harm.  They told investigators Watson was trying to set a timing device when the bomb exploded.
      Jacks said the bomb was not large enough to have destroyed the tower.  He said the men may have been planning just to make a loud noise.
      Fragments from the bomb pierced Watson's body and the force from the blast slammed him against the stairway railing.
      The type of explosive was not determined immediately but Jacks said it was not dynamite.
      Watson was almost to the top of the tower when the bomb went off.
      The tower received some structural damage."   (The Decatur Daily)

Map

Change Basemap

Photos

August 1948 - National Archives online access

August 1948 - National Archives online access - courtesy of Ron Kemnow Collection