Udell Lookout Tower

Built in 1936. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

From the record

“The Udell Lookout Tower is a fire lookout tower located on Forest Road 5207 in the Manistee section of the Huron-Manistee National Forests, near Wellston, Michigan. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.”
Wikipedia article Udell Lookout Tower, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Manistee County · listed in 1996 · category: Structure · built in 1936.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Forest Rd. 5207, Huron--Manistee NF, Wellston, 49660
When was it listed? August 1996
Category. structure
Township. Stronach township
When was it built? 1936
National Register reference number. 95001013 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

58 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Udell Lookout Tower between 1992 and 2020, burning about 260 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	20
Power generation/transmission/distribution	13
Recreation and ceremony	7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Arson/incendiarism	4
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Natural	2
Smoking	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2013	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	MIKELLE 2
28 September 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	UDELL CIGAR
28 September 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	TRUCK
13 September 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	RIFLE RANGE
31 August 2015	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	OLD TARGET
24 August 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	FREESOIL/MEADE TWP FD 0019077 - 2019
24 August 2013	Natural	16 acres	Huron-Manistee National Forest	GUENTHARDT
21 August 2013	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	Huron-Manistee National Forest	SKOCELAS ROAD

Every fire recorded in Manistee County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Udell Lookout Tower: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Fire Clay (Refractory), Salt, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Fischer Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Kujawsky's Clay Pit	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Past Producer
R.G.Peters Salt and Lumber Co.	Salt	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Manistee County

Storms near this property

20 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wellston, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1997 and 2026: 11 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$12,000	Scattered downed trees occurred in Wellston, including one tree downed onto a vehicle.
May 2011	Flash Flood	Wellston	$10,000	Training thunderstorms brought excessive rainfall to the Wellston area. A cooperative observer, 1 mile north of Wellston, measured 5.05 inches of rain from 9 am to 9 pm. A considerable amount of standing water developed on area roads, and some were closed for part of the afternoon.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$5,000	Several trees and power lines were downed in Wellston.
October 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$4,000	Six trees were blown down west of Wellston, near M-55.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$3,000	Two trees and several large limbs were downed.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$2,500	Large tree blown over. An anemometer measured a 62 mph gust before the cups were blown off the measuring device.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	$2,000	Three large trees were blown down.
March 2026	Hail	Wellston	-	Trained spotter reported accumulating hail up to 0.80 inches in diameter.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	-	Strong thunderstorm winds downed numerous trees and overturned a 200 lb water pump.
September 2021	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	-	no account filed
February 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	-	no account filed
October 1999	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	-	no account filed
September 1998	Hail	Wellston	-	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Wellston	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Manistee County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 95001013 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Manistee County	All 19 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.