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Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Black Mountain Lookout

1934 Aermotor MC-24 fire tower on Black Mountain in the Gila National Forest; its 1925 observer's cabin is the NRHP-listed piece; actively staffed as of 2020.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Active Forest Service lookout as of the 2020 chapter report. The sources read give no public visiting rules.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
No visiting arrangements were found. Check with the Black Range Ranger District of the Gila National Forest before going to the site. Do not climb the tower without permission.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot Aermotor MC-24 tower with a 12-by-12-foot wooden cab, erected 1934; all original windows replaced in 1978The design: Aermotor MC-24
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
9,303 ft (2,836 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
33.37803, −108.22721
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-black-mountain

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 3.2 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. 1925 BuiltObserver's cabin built on the site; listed on the National Register in 1988 as the cabin, not the towerSource: firelookout.org
  2. 1934 BuiltTower erected: 30-foot Aermotor MC-24 with a 12-by-12-foot wooden cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  3. 1934 Replaced by a new structureSteel tower with wooden cab erected in 1934.Source: firelookout.org
  4. No record between 1934 and 1977
  5. 1977 StaffedA Silver City Daily Press item reports a Forest Service lookout employed on Black Mountain that yearSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1978 AlteredAll original windows replaced; the 2020 report says this made the tower ineligible in the 1988 reviewSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  7. 1978 RestoredAll original windows replaced, which cost the lookout National Register eligibility in the 1988 evaluation.Source: firelookout.org
  8. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesObserver's cabin listed January 28, 1988 under NRHP 87002474; the tower was not eligibleSource: firelookout.org
  9. No record between 1988 and 2020
  10. 2020 StaffedBlack Mountain described as actively staffedSource: firelookout.org
  11. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 22, 2022 as US 1583, NM 41Source: nhlr.org
  12. 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 Black Mountain lookout stands on the mountain of the same name, in the Black Range district of the Gila National Forest in Catron County, New Mexico, at about 9,303 feet.1,2 The tower was erected in 1934 and is 30 feet tall, an Aermotor MC-24 model with a wooden cab measuring 12 by 12 feet, according to the Register and a 2020 state chapter report.1,2

An observer's cabin was built on the site earlier, in 1925, according to the 2020 report.2 The two dates belong to different structures, the cabin and the tower, so they should not be read as conflicting build years.1,2

In 1978 all of the tower's original windows were swapped out.2 The 2020 report says that change ruled the tower out in the 1988 National Register review, because the review's starting date would have been 1978, when the lookout was only 10 years old.2 The cabin, by contrast, was judged eligible and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1988.2

A 1977 item in the Silver City Daily Press, quoted on a lookout history site, mentioned a Forest Service lookout working on the mountain that year.3

Sources disagree on height. The Register and the 2020 report give 30 feet, but a 1966 federal survey description says the station sits at the center of a 50-foot, four-legged structure that holds up the cabin.1,3,2

The Register recorded the lookout in May 2022 as US 1583, NM 41.1 The 2020 report recommended either re-evaluating and nominating the tower using its 1934 date, or restoring the windows and then nominating it.2

The sources give no public visiting rules. The 2020 report says the lookout is actively staffed.2 Check with the Black Range Ranger District before visiting, and do not climb the tower without permission.

  1. Black Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/black-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. New Mexico chapter report 2020, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Black Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/black-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

1988 photo
1988 photo (1988)Photo: U.S. Forest Service, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1934
    • Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: 1925

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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 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
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. 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.