FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Montezuma County, Colorado

Park Point Lookout

Built by the CCC in 1939 as a rustic sandstone lookout in Mesa Verde; restored in 2009, it is still used in fire season, with no current staffing schedule found.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Overlook parking and trailhead are open; the road is not plowed in winter, so access is limited then; the lookout was open to the public during staffed summer months per the 2009 account

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Parking, a trailhead, a seasonal restroom and a vault toilet at the overlook; the road up is not plowed in winter
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabNative sandstone, 17 ft octagonal floor plan, rustic National Park Service design quarried and worked on Chapin Mesa (1939, Civilian Conservation Corps)The design: National Park Service lookout
Built of
MixedGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,571 ft (2,612 m)
Agency
National Park Service, Mesa Verde National Park
Land
Federal land
Location
Montezuma County, Colorado
Coordinates
37.28047, −108.46147
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-co-park-point

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. 1939 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps with a rustic design; completion in August 1939 per the December 1939 Mesa Verde NotesSources: nhlr.org, forestsandrangelands.gov, npshistory.com
  2. 1939 First staffedLookout observer posted from completion; sleeping and cooking facilities were provided inside so the observer was always on handSource: npshistory.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 2009
  4. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 1, 2009 as NHLR US 806, CO 10Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2009 RestoredRestoration using park funds; dedication held June 10, 2009, the same occasion that recognized the NHLR listingSource: forestsandrangelands.gov
  6. 2019 EventNHLR condition note: cab in good condition; walkway around the lookout could use painting and repair; interior floors and electronics could use workSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2025 StaffedIntermittently staffed again after several unstaffed years, reporting some smoke.Source: firelookout.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 Civilian Conservation Corps built Park Point Lookout in 1939, and a December 1939 park newsletter says the station was completed that August.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes a rustic design intended to fit the summit: a 17-foot octagonal floor plan built of native sandstone from Chapin Mesa, hand-shaped to echo the park's other Pueblo Revival buildings.3 The lookout sits at the highest point in Mesa Verde National Park, which the register puts at 8,571 feet and the park puts at 8,572 feet.3,4

The 1939 park notes rate the station among the best of its type, and describe it as another link in the fire suppression chain.2 Sleeping and cooking space inside the lookout meant the observer was always on hand.2 The observer phoned the fire dispatcher six times a day under ordinary conditions.2 When a smoke was sighted, the dispatcher checked visibility maps to see whether another lookout could also see it; a second report of the same smoke from another tower let the dispatcher place the fire on the map.2

Like many lookouts of its generation, the building gradually wore down from exposure and too little annual maintenance.1 The park decided to restore it with park funds, and a dedication on June 10, 2009 marked both the finished work and the lookout's listing on the National Historic Lookout Register.1,3

The register's July 4, 2009 visit found the lookout unstaffed that day.3 Rangers said that a wet spring and summer had kept fire danger low, so it might not be staffed that season.3 The 2009 account said staffing would continue through the summer, with public access during those months.1

Today the National Park Service says the park still uses the lookout during fire season to pass along updates on lightning, weather and fires.4 The road up is not plowed in winter, which limits access then.4 The overlook has parking, a trailhead and a vault toilet.4 A 2019 condition note in the register said the cab was in good shape, though the walkway around the lookout could use paint and repair.3

  1. Restoration of Park Point Lookout, National Fire Plan success story, Mesa Verde National Park, Forests and Rangelands, https://www.forestsandrangelands.gov/success/stories/2009/nfp_2009_co_nps_meve_rehab.shtml (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mesa Verde Notes, Volume IX No. 1 (December 1939), "Fire! Fire! Fire!", npshistory.com, https://npshistory.com/nature_notes/meve/vol9-1c.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Park Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/co/park-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Park Point, U.S. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/places/parkpoint_overlook.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Park Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Park Point Lookout
Photo: Dsdugan, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: 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
  4. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.