FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Buck Mountain Lookout

A 1939 CT-2 wood fire lookout on the Coconino National Forest, one of few of its design left. HistoriCorps Phase I work is listed; rental and staffing are unconfirmed.

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 tower30-ft wood CT-2 tower with an R-3 modified L-4 14 x 14 ft live-in cab and catwalkCab: L-4; tower: Region 6 timber towers (CT, TT)
Built of
Wood
Built
1939
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
7,541 ft (2,299 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
34.66697, −111.41517
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-buck-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 3.1 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. 1939 BuiltCT-2 wood tower. The register and federal record point to 1939; Wikipedia gives 1933 or 1939Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  2. No record between 1939 and 1988
  3. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListing date conflicts: Wikipedia says December 14, 1987; the federal record shows a January 28, 1988 publication dateSources: en.wikipedia.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  4. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, April 1, 2001Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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.

Buck Mountain's lookout is a 30-foot wood tower built in 1939 on the Coconino National Forest.1,2 It is one of the few remaining towers of its CT-2 design in the United States, and its 14-by-14-foot live-in cab sits on top, with a catwalk.1 Wikipedia gives the build date as 1933 or 1939 and places the tower in the Coronado National Forest.3 The register and the federal record both point to 1939 and to Coconino.1,2

The register recorded the tower on April 1, 2001.1 Wikipedia gives a National Register listing date of December 14, 1987,3 while the federal record shows a January 28, 1988 publication date.2 The sources I read do not settle which date is right.

The work I could document is a HistoriCorps project, listed as Phase I and done in partnership with the Coconino National Forest.4 I could not find when that work took place, whether the tower now operates as a rental, or who staffs it. Check with the Coconino National Forest before planning a visit or a stay.

  1. Buck Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/buck-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Buck Mountain Lookout Tower, National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/87002460 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Buck Mountain Lookout Tower, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Mountain_Lookout_Tower (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Completed Projects, HistoriCorps, https://historicorps.org/completed-projects/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Buck 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, 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
  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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, dates, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.