FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Apache County, Arizona

Lake Mountain Lookout

A 1926 Aermotor steel tower on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, NRHP-listed in 1988, once staffed by a ranger who rode out daily from Los Burros Ranger Station.

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 tower48-49 ft Aermotor LX-24 steel tower with lookout cabThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,467 ft (2,581 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Apache County, Arizona
Coordinates
34.15787, −109.76917
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-lake-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 3.3 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. 1926 BuiltSteel tower and cab erected by the Aermotor Windmill Company; USFS periods of significance given as 1925-1949 with 1926 as the key year.Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  2. 1930 AlteredOriginal ladder to the cab replaced with stairs, sometime in the 1930s (exact year not given).Source: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1930 and 1988
  4. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register of Historic Places, January 28, 1988, reference 87002453, under the multiple-property submission "National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region." Period of significance given as 1925-1949, with 1926 as the key year. The NPGallery record does not state how many other lookouts or structures the submission covers.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  5. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register, March 4, 2002, nominated by Dave Lorenz, as US 421 / AZ 28.Source: 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Lake Mountain Lookout sits on a peak in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Apache County,1,2 about 20 miles east of Lakeside, Arizona.3 The U.S. Forest Service put up the tower in 1926, using a prefabricated steel design from the Aermotor Windmill Company; sources describe the finished structure as 48 to 49 feet tall, topped by a lookout cab.1,3 Registers disagree on the site's elevation — the National Historic Lookout Register gives 8,467 feet, while the National Register of Historic Places documentation gives 8,250 feet — and no source explains the gap.1,3

In its early years the cab had no live-in lookout. A ranger stationed at the nearby Los Burros Ranger Station rode out to Lake Mountain each day to staff the tower.3 At some point in the 1930s the original ladder up to the cab was swapped for a proper stairway.1

The tower, and the Los Burros Ranger Station site near it, were added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1988 (reference number 87002453), as part of a thematic grouping called "National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region."3,4 The nomination lists Lake Mountain's period of historical significance as 1925–1949, with 1926 as the key year.4 It was separately entered in the National Historic Lookout Register in 2002, nominated by Dave Lorenz, then director of the register's Arizona/New Mexico chapter, as entry US 421 / AZ 28.1

As of the lookout register's most recent description, the Forest Service lists Lake Mountain as an active lookout, with the Lakeside Ranger District as cooperator, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's Arizona roster likewise lists it as a standing tower.1,2

Little else turned up in the cached and online sources about this particular tower's working life — no named lookouts, no specific fires spotted, no record of damage or restoration. What is documented comes almost entirely from the two historic registers and the 1988 National Register nomination; the day-to-day story of who watched from the cab, and what they saw, has not surfaced here.

  1. Lake Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/lake-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Lake Mountain Lookout Complex, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mountain_Lookout_Complex (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Lake Mountain Lookout Complex (NRHP reference #87002453), NPGallery Asset Detail, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/87002453 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lake 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.