Fire lookout · Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Cedar Springs Lookout
1955 Aermotor MC40 fire tower on the Jicarilla Reservation, Rio Arriba County NM; BIA-administered and in active service per NHLR; public record is thin.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower35-foot MC40 Aermotor tower with a two-room ground houseThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1955
- Height
- 35 ft (10.7 m)
- Elevation
- 8,291 ft (2,527 m)
- Agency
- Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
- Coordinates
- 36.66170, −106.93360
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-nm-cedar-springs
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 3.5 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
- 1955 BuiltConstructed in 1955 per NHLR; the third lookout on the Jicarilla ReservationSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1955 and 1999
- 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 1, 1999; nominated by Dave LorenzSource: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Cedar Springs Lookout stands on the Jicarilla Reservation in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, at about 8,291 feet.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was built in 1955 and was the third lookout on the reservation.1 Its tower is a 35-foot MC40 Aermotor, with a two-room ground house for living quarters.1
The Bureau of Indian Affairs administers the lookout, and the register says it remains in active service.1 It was registered on September 1, 1999, with Dave Lorenz as nominator.1 A Forest Lookouts page lists the site under the Jicarilla Indian Agency, and a Forest Fire Lookout Association list shows the tower as standing.2,3
The public record is thin. It has no staffing or visiting details for Cedar Springs. Because the Bureau of Indian Affairs administers the lookout on a reservation, anyone wanting to see it should ask that office first rather than go up on their own.1
- Cedar Springs Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/cedar-springs-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Cedar Springs - Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/cedar-springs.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- New Mexico Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 317 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA New Mexico lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Cedar Springs on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.