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Fire lookout · Apache County, Arizona

Piney Hill Lookout

Early-1930s Aermotor MC-39 tower on the Navajo Indian Reservation, registered in 2002 as still active; no later record of its condition or staffing was found.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. The register places the tower on the Navajo Indian Reservation and names the reservation as administrator. The sources give no visiting rule.

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 towerAermotor MC-39 tower with a 7 x 7 ft metal cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
81 ft (24.7 m)
Elevation
8,113 ft (2,473 m)
Agency
Navajo Indian Reservation (administrator); Bureau of Indian Affairs (cooperator)
Land
Tribal land
Location
Apache County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.76140, −109.16760
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-piney-hill

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 3.2 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. 1930 BuiltEarly 1930s per the NHLR entry, which gives no exact year; 1930 is a placeholder for that decadeSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1930 and 2002
  3. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 20, 2002 as US 439, AZ 35Source: 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Piney Hill Lookout is a tower on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Apache County, Arizona.1 The National Historic Lookout Register places it among the reservation's early towers and dates its construction to the early 1930s.1 It is an Aermotor MC-39 tower, 81 feet tall, with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1

The register gives two heights for the mountaintop: 8,102 feet in its description and 8,113 feet in its elevation line.1 The Navajo Indian Reservation administers the tower, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is listed as a cooperator.1

The register entry is dated July 20, 2002, as US 439 and AZ 35. The register describes the tower as still active.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as standing.2 I did not find a later report on its condition, its staffing, or any fires.1,2

The register gives no visiting rule for the tower.1

  1. Piney Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/piney-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Piney Hill 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, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.