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Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Saddle Mountain

A 1934 Aermotor tower on Saddle Mountain, Coconino NF, was moved in 1960 to Round Mountain on the Kaibab NF; no tower is listed at the original site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower moved in 1960 to Round Mountain, Kaibab NF; the Saddle Mountain site has no tower listed

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC30 tower, 35 ft, with a 7x7 ft metal cab (the structure now stands at Round Mountain)The design: Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Unknown
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.43864, −111.73178
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-saddle-mountain

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1934 BuiltAermotor tower erected on Saddle Mountain, Coconino National ForestSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1960
  3. 1960 MovedTower moved to Round Mountain, Kaibab National Forest; a side door replaced the trap door. A Coconino caption dates the move 1955 to 1960.Sources: nhlr.org, flickr.com
  4. No record between 1960 and 2006
  5. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRound Mountain Lookout (US 664, AZ 59) registered March 15, 2006. This registration covers the moved tower, not the Saddle Mountain site.Source: nhlr.org
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

A fire lookout went up on Saddle Mountain in the Coconino National Forest in 1934.1 It was a 35-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1 A Forest Service photo caption says the lookout was built in the 1930s and mostly used in the 1940s.2

The tower did not stay on the mountain.1 In 1960 it was moved to Round Mountain on the Kaibab National Forest, south and slightly east of Williams, where a side door took the place of the usual trap door.1,3 A Coconino caption puts the move somewhere between 1955 and 1960 and hedges it as an allegation, so the exact year is not settled between sources.2

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Arizona list marks the Saddle Mountain tower as gone, so no tower is listed at the site.4 None of the sources read describe what, if anything, remains on the summit, or whether the site is open to visitors.

The moved tower is now the Round Mountain Lookout, listed on the National Historic Lookout Register as US 664, AZ 59 on March 15, 2006.1 A Kaibab National Forest photo album says the site is currently unstaffed and inactive.3 The register entry does not say whether the tower can be climbed or entered.1

Another caption calls the style an Aermotor MC-39, while the register calls the same tower an MC30.2,1 The story follows the register, since it describes the structure that actually moved.1

  1. Round Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/round-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Saddle Mountain Lookout, Coconino National Forest, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/coconinonationalforest/51914754539/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Round Mountain (Inactive) Fire Lookout, Kaibab National Forest, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaibabnationalforest/albums/72157711009290043 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (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, 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.