FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Eagle Peak Lookout

1955 Forest Service CL-100 series lookout cab on 9,801 ft Eagle Peak in Gila National Forest; replaced a 1929 tower; NHLR-registered 2022; seasonal staffing reported in 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 fire lookout. The sources read do not say whether the cab is open to visitors; check with the Reserve Ranger District before going.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Reached by Wilson Canyon Trail #768 and Forest Road 38 (Eagle Peak Road). The Forest Service says the trail and road together are 1.5 miles one way. A road guide calls the road unpaved.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingUSDA Forest Service Standard Plan CL-100 to CL-106 series; 14 by 14 foot steel cab on a 10-foot concrete blockhouse baseThe design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,801 ft (2,987 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gila National Forest (Reserve Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
33.67687, −108.57695
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-eagle-peak

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 3.0 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 BuiltEarlier lookout tower on Eagle Peak, per a Forest Service history cited by Wikipedia and quoted by the westlookouts pageSources: en.wikipedia.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1929 and 1955
  3. 1955 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1955 Replaced by a new structureCurrent CL-100 series cab on a 10-foot base replaced the 1929 tower (NHLR gives 1955 as the build year)Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nhlr.org
  5. 1967 StaffedA lookout was stationed on the peak as of April 15, 1967, with a second person to joinSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1967 and 1988
  7. 1988 Condition assessmentEvaluated for the National Register under the Southwest lookouts theme; not eligible due to ageSource: firelookout.org
  8. No record between 1988 and 2020
  9. 2020 StaffedStaffed by seasonal Forest Service employees, per the 2020 New Mexico chapter reportSource: firelookout.org
  10. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 22, 2022 as US 1586, NM 44; nominated by Mark GutzmanSource: nhlr.org
  11. 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.

Eagle Peak Lookout stands on the summit of Eagle Peak in the Gila National Forest, about 18 miles east of Reserve, New Mexico.1 At 9,801 feet, it sits on the Tularosa Mountains' highest peak.2,1

An earlier tower was built on the peak in 1929.3,1 The current lookout replaced it in 1955 with a Forest Service Standard Plan CL-100 series cab, a 14-by-14-foot steel cab on a 10-foot base.2,3,1 The sources disagree on the base. The Register calls it a concrete blockhouse, while a Forest Service history quoted by a lookout-history site describes a cinder-block base that doubles as a storage room.2,3

A 1967 Silver City Daily Press item noted that a lookout was stationed on the peak as of April 15, with a second person about to join him.3 The lookout was evaluated for the National Register in 1988 and found not eligible because of its age.4 A 2020 chapter report put its age at 65 and called for re-evaluation and possible nomination.4 The same report says seasonal Forest Service staff work the tower.4

The National Historic Lookout Register listed it on May 22, 2022, with Mark Gutzman as nominator.2 Wikipedia calls it an active Forest Service lookout, and the Register page includes a June 2024 photo.1,2

Reaching it means taking Wilson Canyon Trail #768 to Forest Road 38, also called Eagle Peak Road.5 The Forest Service measures the trail-and-road route at 1.5 miles one way.5 A road guide says the road is unpaved and has two sharp hairpin turns near its end.6

The sources do not say whether the cab is open to visitors. Treat it as an active fire lookout and check with the Reserve Ranger District before going.

  1. Eagle Peak Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Peak_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Eagle Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/eagle-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Eagle Peak, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/eagle-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. 2020 Year-End Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, New Mexico Chapter, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Divide Trail #15, U.S. Forest Service, Gila National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/gila/recreation/trails/divide-trail-15 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. "How to drive the unpaved road to lookout at Eagle Peak in New Mexico," Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/7049-eagle-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

July 2017 photo
July 2017 photo (2017)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
June 2024 photo
June 2024 photo (2024)Photo: Mitch O'Brien, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
June 2024 photo
June 2024 photo (2024)Photo: Mitch O'Brien, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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

  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: design, 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. 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.