A short drive down County Road 508 in Bollinger County leads to the quiet site of the former location of the Grassy Towersite. This tower was part of a network of towers, many now dismantled, that assisted in detecting and fighting wildland fires through much of the 20th Century.
The threat of forest fire in many parts of Southeast Missouri was elevated by the 1930s. Past fire suppression in habitats adapted to fire, poor timber harvesting methods that left much fuel on the ground, prolonged drought, and fire-fighting methods still in their infancy contributed to the problem. One major difficulty in firefighting was that of finding fires before they spread so authorities could quickly direct people and equipment to combat blazes.
After devastating fires across large areas of the West in 1910, land managers decided to place elevated towers on higher sites with long-distance views to allow better detection of fires. The idea spread to other regions, and construction on towers in Missouri accelerated in the 1930s. The need was great, but the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps by Congress provided low-cost labor to construct many of the towers. Initially, full-time employees staffed the towers and lived with their families in housing at the site.
Construction of the Grassy Tower began with the acquisition of 40 acres in 1946-47. Construction began immediately, and the 60-foot wooden tower became operational by June 28, 1947. An article in the Mexico Missouri Ledger in 1949 stated, "The Grassy and Gipsy towers on the Sam A. Baker district in Bollinger County are new towers, put there to enable Conservation Commission foresters to protect the forest from its dreadful enemy, fire. Soon after the towers were up and before the towerman moved in, a squadron of flying squirrels moved in, too. These shy little creatures seemed to know that of all homes they could pick in the forest, this one was the least likely to burn down."
The Grassy Tower came online in time to prove useful during the dry years of the early 1950s. At one point in 1952, fires were so bad in the region that, on October 30, “Where on a clear day the smokestack at Marquette Cement Plant in Cape Girardeau can be seen, visibility was only 1 ½ miles…a crew of firefighters on standby duty, were keyed up in anticipation of more fires.”
In 1957-58, a steel lookout tower replaced the temporary wooden tower. The towers had become a well-known sight in Missouri’s forest landscape and at the peak of their use, there were 260 in the state.
Agencies began using spotter planes in the 1940s to assist with fire detection, which were cheaper than staffing towers full-time. Today, staff use the remaining towers only on days with high fire risk. Many of the towers remained as tourist attractions and lookouts, but concerns about maintenance and liability resulted in the gradual closing of most. A number of towers became dangerous over time and agencies dismantled them rather than maintain them.
Such is the case with the Grassy Lookout. The Missouri Department of Conservation dismantled it in 2004, but the base remains on the 40-acre tract, which comprises the Grassy Towersite managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Today only one tower is in use, the Taum Sauk Lookout. Soon, all that will remain of these landmarks will be the peaceful locations on public land where the towers once stood.
