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Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Kanabownitz Lookout

Also known as Kanabownits

A 1940 CCC-built steel tower on Grand Canyon's North Rim, no longer used for fire detection, listed on the register in 2009.

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. Remote part of the North Rim inside Grand Canyon National Park. The sources describe no public trail, road to the base, or visitor rule.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2009)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerInternational Derrick (IDEOC) 7x7 steel tower and cab, about 82 ft 6 in highThe design: IDECO
Built of
Steel
Built
1940
Height
82 ft (25.1 m)
Elevation
8,241 ft (2,512 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
36.29068, −112.21175
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-kanabownitz

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 3.3 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. 1940 BuiltConstructed by the CCC in one of the last major projects the corps completed in the park (NPS). NHLR gives 'Built 1940'.Sources: nhlr.org, nps.gov
  2. No record between 1940 and 2009
  3. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, April 25, 2009Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2009 EventThe four Grand Canyon lookout towers were recognized at a ceremony with the opening of the North Rim Wildland Fire and Emergency Services Facility, July 4, 2009Source: nps.gov
  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.

Kanabownitz Lookout is a steel tower on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.1,2 A park article says the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed it in 1940, near the end of its major building work in the park.2 It is an International Derrick steel tower with a cab about 7 feet square, roughly 82 feet 6 inches tall and standing at 8,241 feet.1,2 A peak-bagging site gives 83 feet, a small difference from that figure.3

The park article is a little loose on who did the building. It says the National Park Service built the Kanabownits tower, but its own section on the tower credits the CCC.2 Either way, the article says these towers were significant to the park's early fire fighting.2

The National Historic Lookout Register recorded the tower on April 25, 2009.1 A ceremony on July 4, 2009 marked the listing of the four Grand Canyon towers, held with the opening of the North Rim fire facility.2 The register says the lookout is no longer used for fire detection, and the park calls all four of its towers inactive.1,2

Visiting is harder to plan. The sources do not describe a public trail, a road to the base, or a visitor rule.1,2,3 A peak-bagging site puts the tower in a remote stretch of the North Rim.3 Ask Grand Canyon National Park about access before planning a trip out there. That site's photo is dated June 15, 2019.3

  1. Kanabownitz Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/kanabownitz-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Four Grand Canyon National Park Lookout Towers have been listed on the National Historic Lookout Register, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/cynsk-v13.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Kanabownitz Lookout, Arizona, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/AZPhotos/Kanabownitz.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Kanabownitz 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, 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: 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.