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Fire lookout · Archuleta County, Colorado

Eightmile Mesa Lookout

1963 30-ft steel tower replacing a 1941 CCC cab on Eightmile Mesa, San Juan NF, Archuleta County, CO; NHLR-registered 2011; trail guide says closed to public.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Trail guide (onX) says the current tower is closed to the public and put in service only when needed; no agency statement about access was found

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Forest Road 651A is one vehicle wide and gets muddy in rain; the trail guide says the view from the tower base is worth the drive; no source says whether the tower may be climbed
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot steel tower with CL-100-series cab and catwalkThe design: CL-100
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1941
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
8,165 ft (2,489 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Archuleta County, Colorado
Coordinates
37.17140, −106.99700
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-co-eightmile-mesa

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 3.4 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 BuiltFirst lookout: 14-by-14-foot wooden cab built by CCC crews; onX gives a 20-foot wood frameSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, onxmaps.com
  2. No record between 1941 and 1963
  3. 1963 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1963 Replaced by a new structureCurrent 30-foot steel tower with CL 100-series cab replaced the first; NHLR's Built field gives 1963Sources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, onxmaps.com
  5. No record between 1963 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 17, 2011 as US 912, CO 17; nominated by Kent ArgowSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2019 Condition assessmentNHLR condition note: tower excellent and needs no work; cab in good conditionSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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 Eightmile Mesa Lookout stands at about 8,165 feet in Archuleta County, Colorado, inside the San Juan National Forest.1

The first lookout on the site was a wooden cab, 14 feet by 14, that Civilian Conservation Corps crews built in 1941.1,2 A trail guide gives that first tower a 20-foot wood frame.3 A 30-foot steel tower with a CL-100-series cab replaced it in 1963.1,2 The register's build-year field still reads 1963, which is the year of the replacement rather than the first cab.1

The register says the tower is used in emergencies.1 The sources I read say nothing about who staffed the lookout over the years or which fires it watched.

The National Historic Lookout Register accepted the tower on August 17, 2011, as US 912, CO 17, on a nomination by Kent Argow.1 A 2019 condition note called the tower excellent, with no repairs needed, and rated the cab in good condition.1

The 1941 cab was replaced, and its footings can still be seen near the base of the current tower.1,3

A trail guide says the current tower is closed to the public and is activated only when needed.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Colorado list still shows the tower as standing.4 The access road, Forest Road 651A, is one vehicle wide and turns muddy in rain.3 The same guide says the view from the base is worth the drive.3 Anyone planning a visit should confirm access with the San Juan National Forest first.

  1. Eightmile Mesa Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/co/eightmile-mesa-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Eightmile Mesa, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/eightmile-mesa.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Lookout Tower & Views-USFS Rd #651A, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/colorado/lookout-tower-views-usfs-rd-651a-5x36wrxy5zyk (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Colorado Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/co/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Eightmile Mesa Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Eightmile Mesa 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, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.