The Survivors

At one time there were 10, strategically scattered across the Great Smoky Mountains. Ten fire towers, all but one constructed by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, manned by wardens during the spring and fall fire seasons to watch for wildfires in and around the Smokies.

Now all but four have been dismantled and removed, their utility in fire detection long since obsolete. (A crumbling warden’s cabin remains near the footprint of the High Rocks tower along remote Welch Ridge, even though the lookout itself is long gone.) Of those, three can still be climbed by hikers seeking to enjoy magnificent long-range views: Mount Cammerer, Mount Sterling and Shuckstack Mountain. The exception is the Cove Mountain tower, now the site of an air-quality monitoring station near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and thus off limits to hikers. 

In this and coming issues we’ll explore this trio of historic structures and the peaks they have doggedly stood atop since the 1930s. We’ll also come to understand the strenuous hikes required to reach the towers, and the stunning vistas they offer. Call the series a tower trilogy, if you will. We’ll start with the Mount Cammerer lookout, precipitously situated on a spur just off the Smokies’ main crest. 

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Just as sports prowess might be measured by the number of nicknames an athlete acquires, the same can be said for names bestowed on some natural landmarks in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Case in point: majestic Mount Cammerer, in the park’s northeastern corner. Mount Cammerer, formally named in 1942 for the late National Park Service Director Arno Cammerer, had been known variously over the years as Sharp Top, Bald Rock, Old Mother and White Rock. In fact, a U.S. Geological Survey benchmark just outside the mountain’s fire tower still identifies the point as Sharp Top. But today, Mount Cammerer reigns on all maps and signs. By any name, it continues as one of the Smokies’ most dramatic destinations.  

Craggy Cammerer, at nearly 5,000 feet elevation, is crowned by a distinctive stone octagonal lookout. Although the low-slung structure doesn’t rise nearly as high as the 60-foot-tall steel towers on Mount Sterling and Shuckstack, the views it offers are no less stunning. Built in the late 1930s, the tower is the Smokies’ northeastern sentinel near where the soaring main crest falls off sharply toward the Pigeon River and its rugged gorge. 

The hike to Mount Cammerer is steeper and slightly longer from the Big Creek area in North Carolina than it is from the Cosby area in Tennessee or from Davenport Gap, where the Appalachian Trail dips as it hugs the state line. Yet, despite the net elevation gain of 3,300 feet, starting with a brawny climb on Chestnut Branch Trail, I prefer the Big Creek route, which also offers ample safe parking near the trailhead. The path reaches the AT in just over two miles, then there’s a steady ascent of about 31⁄3 miles and an up-and-down course on the short-but-rocky Mount Cammerer spur trail. It’s a stern test, but one with a major payoff.

Chestnut Branch Trail initially follows an old logging road a few steps from the parking area adjacent to the Big Creek ranger station, just inside the park boundary. Near its start are a horse barrier, allowing narrow trail access for hikers only, and what appears to be an old cistern on the left. After half a mile or so, the path reaches an area where a Presbyterian mission school and church were built in 1920, several years before authorization of the park. To the left, Chestnut Branch tumbles toward Big Creek near the trailhead. 

After a mile or so, the trail courses to the right, away from Chestnut Branch, and begins a short but steep climb up the ridge to a switchback. The grade then eases before the path does a dance with a tributary of Chestnut Branch as you make your way toward the AT junction. The final ascent is steeper still, until the trail terminates at an open area just below 3,000 feet. The junction leaves you with a remaining elevation gain of about 2,000 feet before you reach the Mount Cammerer spur. A long, hard pull awaits.

As might be expected, the AT wastes no time in beginning the steady climb toward Mount Cammerer. You walk through a rhododendron tunnel and then turn sharply right to travel a dry ridge. About a mile above Chestnut Branch Trail, you arrive at another expansive junction where the Lower Mount Cammerer Trail terminates. The latter trail has zigzagged more than seven miles from Cosby Campground on the Tennessee side. Here you’ve reached the halfway point of the six-mile route from Big Creek to the Mount Cammerer lookout. 

Above the trail junction, soon after the lengthy climb resumes, there’s a short side trail to the left, noted in a recent Appalachian Trail Data Book as a path to a spring. You continue climbing, hiking through a boulder field as the trail ascends. At the second of two switchbacks—a point that brings you under the Mount Cammerer ridge line—you can enjoy a fine view across the Pigeon River Gorge toward Snowbird Mountain. But there’s an even more dramatic vista farther up the trail, at a rock outcrop just past a sturdy revetment. Soaring Mount Sterling is prominent from the outcrop, rising well above a closer ridge separating the Chestnut Branch and Big Creek valleys. 

At last, after the arduous climb, you arrive at the junction with the spur trail to the lookout. A benchmark notes the elevation here as 4,949 feet, actually 21 feet higher than the fire tower’s altitude out on the ridge. As you hike toward the lookout, the spur starts to seem longer than the .6 mile indicated on the trail sign, but perhaps that’s because the rugged course dips and climbs on a rocky path. Soon after passing a hitching post where horses must be left, the fire tower comes into view, rising above the rock outcrops that also yield exceptional views of the surrounding mountains and Tennessee foothills. 

Completed in 1939 after two years of construction, the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower (originally called White Rock Lookout Tower) looks nothing like the nearby Mount Sterling steel tower, built by the CCC a few years earlier. Located on a rocky precipice, the lookout, with its squat design, mimics towers in the American West. The CCC used native stone quarried just a few hundred feet away for the two-story structure, as well as native timbers for the steps, observation room, and the railings and exterior walkway encircling the room. Restored in the mid-1990s thanks to funding from Friends of the Smokies, the lookout remains a structure of great charm despite the battering it takes from the elements on its lofty, exposed perch. A nearby interpretive sign notes that Cammerer, the National Park Service director from 1933 to 1940, secured a critical commitment of $5 million from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help establish the park.

As for the 360-degree views, they are extraordinary on a relatively clear day. Prominent to the southwest, looming above the Smokies crest, is the 6,621-foot Mount Guyot, second highest peak in the park. To the southeast, along Mount Sterling Ridge, is Mount Sterling itself, at an elevation of 5,842 feet. Outside the park, among the Tennessee foothills to the north and northwest, the Pigeon River and English Mountain are easily visible. It’s truly a feast of vistas among Cammerer’s crags, shrubs and red spruce. 

As you walk back toward the AT, only a few steps from the tower, there’s a wonderful vantage point atop a broad rock outcrop that falls off dramatically to the north. Even if this were the only view from Mount Cammerer, it would be well worth the strenuous hike.