FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Skinner Ridge

Aermotor MC-39 tower on Kaibab NF's Skinner Ridge, erected 1929 or 1933; moved to Encino, NM, in 1950; ridge site listed as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Ridge site listed as gone; the tower was obtained by the Santa Fe National Forest and erected at Encino, New Mexico, in July 1950

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 MC-39 steel tower with a 7 by 7 foot steel cabThe design: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
59 ft (18.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaibab National Forest (original site); Santa Fe National Forest, Coyote Ranger District (Encino)
Land
Unknown
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.90989, −112.00992
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-skinner-ridge

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 2.8 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. 1929 BuiltErected at Skinner Ridge; the 2020 report gives 1929 or 1933Source: firelookout.org
  2. 1941 EventStill standing on Skinner Ridge in 1941, per a document by Barbara Zinn cited in the 2020 reportSource: firelookout.org
  3. 1950 MovedSanta Fe National Forest obtained the tower in 1948; erected at Encino in July 1950Sources: firelookout.org, nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1950 and 2013
  5. 2013 EventScoping began on a proposed 125-foot communications tower on Skinner Ridge; the proposal was cancelledSource: fs.usda.gov
  6. 2016 EventTusayan East decision signed 07/09/2016, including a communications tower on top of Skinner Ridge; project listed as completed; construction not confirmedSource: fs.usda.gov
  7. 2020 StaffedEncino lookout reported as staffed in the 2020 year-end reportSource: firelookout.org
  8. 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.

The Skinner Ridge lookout stood on the Kaibab National Forest in Coconino County, Arizona.1,2

The tower was a steel Aermotor MC-39 model.1 The 2020 New Mexico year-end report gives its height as 59 feet, as it stands at Encino.1 The report gives the erection year as 1929 or 1933.1 It was still standing on the ridge in 1941, according to a document by Barbara Zinn that the report cites.1

The tower did not stay on the ridge.1 The Santa Fe National Forest obtained it in 1948, and it was erected at Encino, New Mexico, in July 1950.1,3 Encino is on the Coyote Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.1 As of 2020, Encino was the district's only lookout and had staff on duty.1

The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the Skinner Ridge site as gone.2 The Forest Service signed a decision for a wireless tower project in July 2016, and that project includes a communications tower on top of Skinner Ridge.4 The project page lists it as completed, but it does not say whether the ridge tower was built.4 A separate 2013 proposal for a 125-foot communications tower on the same ridge was later cancelled.5

  1. New Mexico Lookouts 2020 Year-End Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Arizona Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Encino Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/encino-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Tusayan East Wireless Communications Sites Project (#46212), Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/projects/46212 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. GC Hub Wireless Communications Site Development (#41068), Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/projects/41068 (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. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: what it is built of, design, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · 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.