Information about this tower site
Names: Mason Ridge
Location: Morgan-Monroe State Forest
County: Monroe (there are 3 in Monroe County: Hickory Ridge, Mason Ridge, and Dutch Ridge)
Topo quad: Hindustan
Condition: Climbable up into cab. Gate around tower is locked most of time.
Maps of Mason Ridge
Above: Hindustan topo 1948, detail
Above: Hindustan topo 1961, detail
Note: The Indiana Geological and Water Survey TM05 map has this area, but does not show the tower, in either the original version of the map or the revised one in 2024.
Links
Article by Teena Ligman in Lookout Network, Winter 2010
There are two Structural Survey numbers for Mason Ridge tower: 004-279-03012 and 004-279-08038.
Data
Latitude: 39.32949
Longitude: -86.42249
Mystery: There are two references online to there being -two- Mason Ridge tower sites, but I am not aware of any evidence for one in Morgan County. The Forest Service website page lists that, as does Ron Kenmow’s webpage. They both list two sites, one in Monroe County and one in Morgan County.
History of this tower site
Morgan-Monroe State Forest began in 1929.
A sign at the tower says it was erected in 1930.
Indiana’s SHAARD database, or IHSSI county survey, has this interesting note about the tower: ” *Sources are confusing as to when this tower was built. It was typical of the Division of Forestry to construct a fire tower almost immediately after land acquisition; Morgan-Monroe was established in 1929. The 1931 Annual Report notes the construction of an eighty foot steel tower on the property. The 1932 report mentions it also. Why would the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) replace it immediately? Yet the 1934 report implies the CCC built a fire tower. There are a few later references in “Outdoor Indiana”. Difficult to be certain; the towers were all of the same basic design.”
The above is an undated photo.
A page about Monroe County history says that the CCC camp here was “Company 542 and consisted of young men of color.” It doesn’t definitively say that this CCC company built the Mason Ridge tower, but it seems possible.
The IDNR Outdoor Indiana video from 2013 (available on YouTube) has an interview with Dennis Goen, a Mason Ridge towerman from 1963-1965.
IDNR photos
These two Morgan-Monroe State Forest photos were posted to Facebook in December 2024, by someone at Indiana DNR, and I grabbed them without permission. The first picture is the Mason Ridge tower in MMSF.
Personal photos of Mason Ridge
Notes: In 2022, my brother secured permission for us to climb this tower. This involved calling ahead to the MMSF office and asking them to unlock the gate.
