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Fire lookout · Apache County, Arizona

Oakridge Lookout

Navajo Reservation International Derrick tower, built 1941 per NHLR; 83 ft with 7x7 cab, registered 2002, listed standing; no staffing or visit data found.

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 towerInternational Derrick design tower; 83-ft tower with 7x7-ft metal cabThe design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1941
Height
83 ft (25.3 m)
Elevation
7,606 ft (2,318 m)
Agency
Navajo Indian Reservation; Bureau of Indian Affairs cooperator
Land
Tribal land
Location
Apache County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.60140, −109.24190
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-oakridge

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 3.1 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. 1941 BuiltNHLR says the tower was constructed in 1941; neither source names a builderSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1941 and 2002
  3. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on July 20, 2002 as US 438, AZ 34Source: 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.

The Oakridge Lookout sits on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Apache County, Arizona, at an elevation of 7,606 feet.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was constructed in 1941 and gives its design as International Derrick, a type it shares with other towers on the reservation.1 The tower is 83 feet tall and carries a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1

The Register accepted the lookout on July 20, 2002, as US 438, AZ 34, and lists the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a cooperator.1 It uses both spellings, Oakridge and Oak Ridge, on its own pages.1 The Register's description calls the tower "in active service," but the page does not say when that was written.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Arizona list gives the name Oak Ridge and shows the tower as standing, with the same register number.2

The sources I read say nothing about who built the tower, who staffed it, or which fires it watched.1,2 They also say nothing about whether the public can visit or climb it. Anyone thinking of a trip should ask the Navajo Nation or the Bureau of Indian Affairs first.1,2

  1. Oakridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/oakridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Oakridge 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, 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. 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

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