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Fire lookout · Santa Cruz County, Arizona

Mount Wrightson

Old Baldy fire lookout on Mount Wrightson, Santa Cruz County, AZ: built about 1909, final version removed late 1950s; stone foundation remains on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The final lookout was removed in the late 1950s; parts of its stone foundation remain at the summit.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. The summit is reached on foot by trails; the lookout site is the summit foundation.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Old Baldy Trail (#372) or the Super Trail to the summit, starting from Mount Wrightson Picnic Area for the Old Baldy route

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabFinal 1928 version about 12 by 12 feet, with a cupola holding a fire finder, on a platform 4 feet above ground; earlier lookouts were smallerThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1909
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
USDA Forest Service, Coronado National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Coordinates
31.69594, −110.84822
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-mount-wrightson

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1909 BuiltFirst lookout, estimated under six feet square with no windows; used only while a lookout was on dutySource: gvrhc.org
  2. 1911 EventTucson Citizen (as quoted by Forest Lookouts) said a lookout would be kept on Old Baldy, with telephone links to ranger stationsSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1912 EventTelephone line from the Madera Administrative Site completed to the lookoutSource: gvrhc.org
  4. 1914 EventRanger cabin (Baldy Cabin) built near Baldy Spring for rangers off lookout dutySource: gvrhc.org
  5. 1920 Replaced by a new structureSlightly larger lookout, about 8 by 8 feet, replaced the first; the Forest Service replaced itSources: gvrhc.org, gvrhc.org
  6. 1922 FireBaldy station said a reported fire in the Huachucas seemed to be only a small building or burning rubbish; reported a fire of fairly large size in Mexico about 30 miles south of Nogales (Tombstone Epitaph, as quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1928 Replaced by a new structureAbout 12 by 12 foot building with a cupola and fire finder replaced the 1920 lookoutSource: gvrhc.org
  8. No record between 1928 and 1958
  9. 1958 RemovedFinal lookout removed in the late 1950s; by 1958 only the decking with a crawl space remainedSources: gvrhc.org, gvrhc.org
  10. No record between 1958 and 1973
  11. 1973 BurnedBaldy Cabin near Baldy Spring burned in the fall of 1973 and its remnants were removed; this is the cabin, not the lookoutSource: gvrhc.org
  12. No record between 1973 and 2011
  13. 2011 Condition assessmentSummary says only parts of the stone foundation remainSource: gvrhc.org
  14. 2022 Condition assessmentVisitor describes the summit as holding the lookout foundation; visit dated February 22, 2022Source: outdoorpilgrim.com
  15. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Mount Wrightson lookout, also called the Old Baldy lookout, stood on the summit of Mount Wrightson, a peak in the Santa Rita range of southern Arizona, at 9,453 feet.1,2 Wikipedia gives the peak as 9,456 feet, a small difference from the figure in the GVRHC and Forest Service accounts.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as a gone, ground-level lookout.4

The first lookout went up around 1909.1 Its size was estimated at under six feet square, with no windows, and it was used only while a lookout was on duty.1 A telephone line from the Madera Administrative Site reached the lookout in March 1912.1 Around 1914 a cabin went up near Baldy Spring, a short way from Baldy Saddle, to give rangers living quarters when they were off duty at the lookout.1 About 1920 the Forest Service replaced the first lookout with a slightly larger one, and in 1928 a building of about 12 by 12 feet took its place.1,5 That final version had a work area, a kitchen, a sleeping area and a cupola holding a fire finder, on a platform four feet above the ground.1

Newspapers of the time took notice of the lookout. In May 1911 the Tucson Citizen reported that a watch would be posted on Old Baldy to catch fires early, with phone contact to the district's ranger stations.6 In May 1922 the Tombstone Epitaph reported that a fire alarm from the Huachucas proved baseless, and that the Baldy station said it seemed to have been only a small structure or a rubbish fire.6 The same station described a fire of fairly large size in Mexico, apparently around 30 miles south of Nogales.6

In 1958 rangers still used the cabin now and then, and it was kept supplied with food and firewood.5

The final lookout was taken down in the late 1950s.1 By 1958 only the decking remained, with an open space beneath it, and a sign-in roster was kept in a tin under it.1,5 The Baldy cabin burned in the fall of 1973, and its remnants were cleared away.1 A 2011 summary says that only some of the stone foundation was left.1

No source we read describes a standing structure at the summit today.1,7 A visitor who climbed it on February 22, 2022 reported that the summit holds the lookout's foundation, and said a guest register may be in one inner corner of the wall.7 Both the Old Baldy Trail (#372) and the Super Trail lead to the summit, and the Old Baldy route starts at the Mount Wrightson Picnic Area.2,7

  1. Mt. Wrightson Fire Lookout, GVRHC, https://www.gvrhc.org/Library/WrightsonFireLookout.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Old Baldy Trail #372, Coronado National Forest, Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/coronado/recreation/trails/old-baldy-trail-372 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Mount Wrightson, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Wrightson (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Arizona lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Boy Scout Tragedy, GVRHC, https://www.gvrhc.org/Library/BoyScoutTragedy.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Arizona - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/arizona.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  7. Mount Wrightson - Santa Cruz Co. High Point, Outdoor Pilgrim, https://outdoorpilgrim.com/mount-wrightson/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.