I've passed a fire lookout tower on highway 130 between Whiteville and Shallotte regularly for the past 40 years. Here's a picture from Google Street View.
Today I asked ChatGPt how lookout towers helped to pinpoint the location of forest fires. In the answer was reference to the Osborne fire finder. I've seen those in movies and tv shows, but I didn't know the proper name for them.
And here's a picture of an Osborne fire finder from core77.com:
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Note the map under the glass. That surprised me, but it's obviously an important aid.
If you want to buy a new or refurbished fire finder, or buy parts to refurbish the one you already have, you can do it here:
Another good site is: osborne.pdf (tnlandforms.us)
I don't know whether the Shallotte tower is still operational or not, but there was a significant wildfire near Bolivia last week while we were at the beach. Air quality alerts for portions of Brunswick County, road closures, etc., so the threat is still alive.
I could probably climb to the top of the Shallotte tower if there was a place to spend the night at maybe halfway up.
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