FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Gila County, Arizona

Mount Ord Lookout

Mount Ord Lookout in Gila County, Arizona, is a 1983 102-foot lookout that replaced a 1936 Aermotor MC 39 tower, which was moved to the Rim Country Museum in Payson.

Now at the Rim Country Museum

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 tower102-foot tower with a 14 by 14 foot metal CL-100 cab and catwalk, built 1983 to replace a 1936 Aermotor MC 39 towerThe designs: CL-100, Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
102 ft (31.1 m)
Elevation
7,088 ft (2,160 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Gila County, Arizona
Coordinates
33.90498, −111.40902
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-mount-ord

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. 1936 BuiltOriginal Aermotor MC 39 tower dated 1936 per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1936 and 1983
  3. 1983 Replaced by a new structureCurrent CL-100 cab lookout constructed in 1983 in place of the 1936 towerSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1983 and 2002
  5. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register July 20, 2002; nominated by Dave Lorenz, AZ/NM RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
  6. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to the Rim Country Museum.Source: FFLA
  7. 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.

Mount Ord Lookout stands on Mount Ord within the Tonto National Forest.1 The mountain takes its name from Major General Edward Ord.2 The National Historic Lookout Register places the lookout in Gila County, Arizona, while the Arizona fire-lookout listing gives the county as Gila/Maricopa.1,3

The current lookout took the place of an earlier 1936 Aermotor MC 39 tower.1 The newer structure was constructed in 1983.1 It is about 102 feet tall and has a 14-by-14-foot metal cab with a catwalk.1

The sources I could read do not say whether anyone staffed the lookout, or when that work ended. None of them names a fire it reported.

The Rim Country Museum in Payson, Arizona, received the 1936 tower, and the register gives no date for the move.1 The current lookout is still standing, according to the Arizona listing.3 It was registered with the National Historic Lookout Register on July 20, 2002, after a nomination by Dave Lorenz, the AZ/NM registrar.1 The same listing shows the relocated tower at the museum as standing.3

The U.S. Forest Service administers the site, with the Mesa Ranger District as a cooperator.1 The top of the mountain also holds a collection of communications towers.2 The sources I could read do not say whether the lookout is staffed or open to visitors, so check with the Mesa Ranger District before going up.

  1. Mount Ord Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/mount-ord-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mount Ord (Arizona), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ord_(Arizona) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Fire Lookouts, Arizona, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Ord 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 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.