Big Walker Lookout

[1] The tower is accessed from the Big Walker General Store, just off US Route 52 about 12 miles (19 km) from Wytheville, Virginia.

[2] Originally, visitors crossed to the tower by way of a swinging bridge that connected to the back of the old general store.

[3] According to the Virginia Department of Tourism, the tower is located at a mountain pass used by Molly Tynes, a woman who warned the town of Wytheville of impending raids by John Toland during the Civil War.

[4] The tower is the beginning of a Virginia Civil War Trails driving tour detailing the Battle of Wytheville, which occurred on July 18, 1863, when "a Federal raiding party marched to the Wytheville area intending to destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad tracks and bridges".

Hastily organized Confederate resistance succeeded in killing Toland in the street and limiting the damage to the railroad track and stock.