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Fire lookout · Apache County, Arizona

Fluted Rock Lookout

MC-39 Aermotor tower in Apache County on the Navajo Indian Reservation, dated by the Register to the early 1930s; labelled on a 1955 USGS map; NHLR-registered 2002 and listed standing.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Ask the tribe before visiting.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower41-foot MC-39 Aermotor tower with 7 by 7 foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
8,272 ft (2,521 m)
Agency
Navajo Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Apache County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.88650, −109.24790
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-fluted-rock

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. 1955 Eventlabelled as Fluted Rock Lookout on a USGS topographic map portraying 1955 (published 1958)Source: pastmaps.com
  2. No record between 1955 and 2002
  3. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered July 20, 2002 as US 437, AZ 33Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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.

Fluted Rock Lookout sits in Apache County, Arizona, inside the Navajo Indian Reservation. It overlooks a region that shares its name.1

The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower was constructed in the early 1930s. It is a 41-foot MC-39 Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1

A USGS topographic map that portrays the area in 1955, published in 1958, labels Fluted Rock Lookout.2 Pastmaps' description of that map calls the lookout and Red Butte key landmarks for orientation on the plateau.2 The map gives no build date, but its label suggests the tower already stood by 1955.2

The Register names the Navajo Indian Reservation as administrator, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as cooperator. It describes the tower as in service but gives no staffing dates. I found no source that names anyone who worked the lookout or describes a fire it reported.1

The Register recorded the lookout on July 20, 2002, as US 437, AZ 33.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Arizona list shows it as standing.3

No source I read says whether visitors may reach or climb the tower. Questions about a visit belong with the administrator the Register names, and I could not confirm what that process involves.1

  1. Fluted Rock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/fluted-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. 1955 Map of Zith-Tusayan Butte 1 NW, Chinle Agency, AZ, Pastmaps, https://pastmaps.com/map/zith-tusayan-butte-1-nw-apache-county-az-usgs-topo-1955-p1958 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Fluted Rock 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, access, 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: 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.