Fire lookout · Cochise County, Arizona
Barfoot Lookout
Coronado NF ground cabin on Buena Vista Peak, AZ: 1935 build, NRHP 1988, destroyed by the June 2011 Horseshoe II fire; only the foundation is described today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in the June 2011 Horseshoe II fire; the Register's field reads 'Removed June 2011'; the sources describe only the foundation
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Ground-level cab14-by-14-foot wood-frame L-4 ground cabin with a roof-catch cisternThe design: L-4
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1935
- Height
- 14 ft (4.3 m)
- Elevation
- 8,703 ft (2,653 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Cochise County, Arizona
- Coordinates
- 31.91608, −109.27344
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-az-barfoot
View from the cab
What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.
This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.
Downloads about 3.0 MB of terrain data the first time.
Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.
History
Then and now
- 1935 BuiltConstructed in 1935; the Register and Forest Lookouts credit a Civilian Conservation Corps crew, which Wikipedia calls a hypothesisSources: westlookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
- 1946 FireJune 1946: smoke from a fire two miles away completely enveloped the station; William J. Fry was the lookoutSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1946 and 1988
- 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register as No. 87002463, part of the National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region multiple-property listing; NPS weekly list dates it January 28, 1988, Wikipedia July 28, 1988Sources: nps.gov, en.wikipedia.org
- 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 30, 1996 as US 218, AZ 12; nominated by Dave Lorenz, Arizona RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1996 and 2011
- 2011 DestroyedOverrun by the Horseshoe Two (Horseshoe II, Horseshoe 2) Fire in early June 2011 and destroyed; the Register's field reads Removed June 2011Sources: westlookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
- 2011 Removed'Removed' field on NHLR detail page: "June 2011".Source: NHLR register entry
- 2014 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 14, 2014 as US 1547, AZ 1; nominated by James NutiSource: firetower.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
Old maps of this spot
USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Barfoot Lookout was a 14-by-14-foot wood-frame ground cabin on Buena Vista Peak in the Chiricahua Mountains.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1935,3 but Wikipedia calls the CCC attribution a hypothesis.1 The cabin stood at 8,703 feet (2,653 meters), and it had a roof-catch cistern.3,4
In June 1946 William J. Fry, lookout on what a 1946 newspaper item calls Barefoot peak, reported that smoke from a fire two miles away had engulfed his station.2 The lookout was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, as one of a group of forest fire lookouts in the Southwestern Region.5,1 The two sources disagree on the date: the National Park Service weekly list gives January 28, 1988, and Wikipedia gives July 28, 1988.5,1
In early June 2011 the Horseshoe Two Fire overran the lookout.2 A June 8, 2011 item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, listed Barfoot Lookout among the buildings destroyed during the fast fire run.2 The Register lists the lookout as removed in June 2011, but its text says the fire destroyed it.3
The only remnant the sources describe is the foundation.4,3 The Register places the site in Coronado National Forest, administered by the U.S. Forest Service, but none of the sources we read says whether the foundation is open to visitors.3
- Barfoot Lookout Complex, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barfoot_Lookout_Complex (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Barfoot, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/barfoot.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Barfoot Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/barfoot-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Barfoot Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/az/barfoot-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- National Register of Historic Places Weekly List, January to September 1988, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-1988-Jan-Sept-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Gone
- NHLR: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: height, links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story
More about this lookout elsewhere
- NHLR register entry US 218 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLOS register entry US 1547 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Barfoot Lookout Complex (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- National Register of Historic Places Weekly List, January to September 1988 (National Park Service) (opens another site)
- FFLA Arizona lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Barfoot on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.