FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Greenlee County, Arizona

Bear Mountain Lookout

Apache-Sitgreaves lookout at 8,538 ft: a 1933 Aermotor tower on a site used since 1928; NRHP-listed 1988, NHLR-registered 2002, reported in active service.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LX-25 steel tower with a 7x7 metal cabThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
46 ft (14.0 m)
Elevation
8,538 ft (2,602 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Alpine Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Greenlee County, Arizona
Coordinates
33.53353, −109.14452
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-bear-mountain

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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

  1. 1928 EventSite has hosted a lookout since 1928, per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1933 Built46-ft LX-25 Aermotor tower with 7x7 metal cab; Wikipedia says it was installed in 1933 and likely built by the CCCSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1933 and 1988
  4. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed as Bear Mountain Lookout Complex, NRHP #87002452, under the multiple listing National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern RegionSources: westlookouts.weebly.com, npgallery.nps.gov
  5. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register March 4, 2002Source: nhlr.org
  6. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bear Mountain rises to 8,538 feet in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, and a lookout has stood on the site since 1928.1 The tower there now dates from 1933 and is a steel Aermotor with a metal cab.1,2

Sources disagree about the tower's height. The register gives 46 feet, a West Lookouts page gives 45 feet 9 inches, and Wikipedia lists 49 feet 9 inches.1,2,3 Wikipedia says the tower was installed in 1933 and was likely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the National Park Service record for the complex lists the CCC among its architects.3,4

The complex joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, as part of a multiple listing for national forest fire lookouts in the Southwestern Region.2,4 The National Historic Lookout Register recorded it on March 4, 2002.1

The register says the tower is in active service, but it gives no date for that and no history of who has staffed it.1 A Forest Fire Lookout Association list shows the tower as standing.5

The register places the lookout in the back country of the forest and gives no directions or road information.1 I did not find a rental listing or visitor guidance for Bear Mountain. The register says towers available for rent are marked on its listing pages, and the Bear Mountain page carries no such mark.6,1

  1. Bear Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/bear-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bear Mountain - Forest Lookouts, West Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/bear-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bear Mountain Lookout Complex, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Mountain_Lookout_Complex (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Bear Mountain Lookout Complex, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/644de7a0-a9a4-45c1-9c3a-608e3d6044d0/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Arizona Lookouts (by County), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Rentals, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/rentals/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.