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Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Signal Hill Lookout

Grand Canyon National Park fire tower in Coconino County, Arizona, built 1929 as a 35-foot Aermotor LS-40; inactive since at least 2009; the register and park disagree on the rim.

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 tower35-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with 7-by-7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
6,780 ft (2,067 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
36.17008, −112.35807
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-signal-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 3.1 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. 1926 EventA fire lookout 'was established at Signal Hill' in 1926, per the Report of the Director of the National Park Service, as quoted on the Forest Lookouts Arizona page; unclear whether it is the same site as the 1929 towerSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1929 BuiltBuilt 1929 as a 35-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower; the register and the 2009 park page agreeSources: nhlr.org, home.nps.gov
  3. 1937 StaffedRoy Lemons manned the tower in 1937, according to a July 1995 park interview quoted on the 2009 park pageSource: home.nps.gov
  4. No record between 1937 and 2009
  5. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 25, 2009, as US 805, AZ 70Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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.

Signal Hill is a fire lookout inside Grand Canyon National Park in Coconino County, Arizona.1 The register says the National Park Service administers it.1 The park's own 2009 account says the Park Service constructed the tower in 1929, near Pasture Wash on the South Rim.2 The register also gives 1929 and describes a 35-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1

The two sources disagree about where it is. The register says the tower overlooks some of the most fire-prone areas on the North Rim, while the park's 2009 page places it near Pasture Wash on the South Rim.1,2 This story follows the park's account, since the park built the tower and administers it.1,2

A passage quoted on the Forest Lookouts Arizona page, attributed to the Report of the Director of the National Park Service and dated 1926, says a telephone line was built from Pasture Wash Ranger Station to Signal Hill that year and that a fire lookout was established there.3 The sources read do not say whether that first lookout stood where the 1929 tower stands.

The park's 2009 page includes a transcript of a July 1995 interview with Roy Lemons, who manned the tower in 1937.2

The park's 2009 page says all four of its lookout towers are inactive and ties that to a shift in fire control policy.2 The register says the tower has stopped being used to spot fires.1

The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.4 The sources read do not say whether visitors can reach or climb it. Because it sits inside a national park, ask the park before planning any visit, and stay away from the tower if access is closed.

  1. Signal Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/signal-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Canyon Sketches Vol 13 - Sept. 2009, Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service), https://home.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/cynsk-v13.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. ARIZONA - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/arizona.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Signal Hill 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, 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, 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.