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Fire lookout · Greenlee County, Arizona

Blue Lookout

Greenlee County Forest Service tower built 1933 as an Aermotor MC-24 (31 ft 6 in); NHLR-registered 2009; still listed as standing and reached by trail.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Reached by a Forest Service trail in the Blue Range Primitive Area (hikers and horseback riders; no motor or mechanized travel); no source says the tower itself is open to climbing

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Trail is open to hiking and horseback riding; motorized and mechanized travel is prohibited
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-24 lookout (1933), tower about 31 ft 6 inThe design: Aermotor MC-24
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
31 ft (9.6 m)
Elevation
9,346 ft (2,849 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Greenlee County, Arizona
Coordinates
33.56200, −109.29703
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-blue

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 2.9 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. 1921 EventTrail guide dates a bank robbery in McNary to 1921; the man was shot as he stepped out of the cabinSource: fs.usda.gov
  2. 1922 EventJuly 21, 1922 newsletter item: a bank robber was pursued to the lookout and shot at the guard cabin some weeks earlierSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 BuiltAermotor MC-24 lookout with a 31-foot 6-inch tower; the register gives the same build yearSources: westlookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1933 and 1960
  5. 1960 AlteredCab remodeled with replaced windows and siding; source gives the 1960s only, so 1960 is a placeholder yearSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 2009
  7. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on September 2, 2009Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2011 FireWallow Fire of June 2011 severely affected the northwest part of the Blue Range Primitive Area; no source says the lookout was damagedSource: fs.usda.gov
  9. 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.

Blue Lookout stands on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Greenlee County, Arizona, at about 9,346 feet 1,2. It was built in 1933 as an Aermotor MC-24 lookout on a tower about 31 feet 6 inches tall 2. The National Historic Lookout Register calls it a sister structure to Big Lake Lookout and says it was also built in 1933 1.

A July 1922 newsletter item describes a bank robber who was chased to the lookout and shot by lawmen at the guard cabin some weeks earlier 2. A Forest Service trail guide dates a robbery at a bank in McNary to 1921, and says a posse member shot the man as he stepped out of the cabin with his hands up 3. The two accounts agree on the cabin but not on the date, so I have not settled it.

The cab was remodeled in the 1960s, and its windows and siding were replaced 2. In June 2011 the Wallow Fire badly hit the northwest part of the Blue Range Primitive Area, where the trail runs 3. None of the pages I read says the lookout was damaged.

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Arizona list still shows the tower as standing 4.

Today the register says the lookout can be reached by trail 1. The trail is open to hikers and horseback riders, but motorized and mechanized travel is prohibited 3. I found no record of who staffs the lookout now, and no source says whether visitors may climb the tower itself. Check with the Apache-Sitgreaves before you go.

  1. Blue Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/blue-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Blue, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/blue.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Blue Lookout Trail - # 71, U.S. Forest Service, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/apache-sitgreaves/recreation/trails/blue-lookout-trail-71 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

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

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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, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.