DNR Fire Tower, Minnesota State Fairgrounds
DNR fire tower with metal staircase at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights.
The fire tower stands on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights, built to represent the fire lookout towers once used by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources across the state's forested regions. The DNR maintains the structure as an exhibit tied to its ongoing wildfire prevention and forestry education programs. Visitors can climb its stairways to an observation deck, a feature standard to fire towers historically staffed by lookouts watching for smoke during dry seasons. Fire towers like this one were largely phased out of active use once aerial patrols and satellite monitoring took over detection duties.
Photo taken in November 2017.
