FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

Encino Lookout

A 59-foot Aermotor tower on Encino Point, first erected on the Kaibab National Forest and re-erected here in 1950.

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
Staffed during fire season (as of 2020)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower59-ft Aermotor MC-39 steel tower with a 7x7 ft steel cabCab: L-4; tower: Aermotor MC-39
Built of
Steel
Built
1950
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,867 ft (3,008 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Santa Fe National Forest (Coyote Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Coordinates
36.12249, −106.55373
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-encino

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. 1929 EventFirst erected at Skinner Ridge on the Kaibab NF; the 2020 review gives 1929 or 1933Source: firelookout.org
  2. No record between 1929 and 1948
  3. 1948 MovedSanta Fe NF moved the abandoned Skinner Ridge tower to a Santa Fe warehouseSource: npshistory.com
  4. 1949 MovedCerro Valdez L-4 cabin and log cabin moved to the Encino site in November 1949Sources: firelookout.org, npshistory.com
  5. 1950 BuiltEncino site constructed in July 1950 as it presently exists; tower erected thereSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  6. 1950 MovedTower obtained by the Santa Fe NF in 1948 from Skinner Ridge on the Kaibab NF and erected at the Encino site in July 1950.Source: firelookout.org
  7. No record between 1950 and 1984
  8. 1984 ClosedRegular staffing ended and the lookout closed; the history gives 1983 or 1984Source: npshistory.com
  9. 1988 Condition assessmentEncino complex found not eligible in the 1988 thematic National Register reviewSource: firelookout.org
  10. No record between 1988 and 2015
  11. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 30, 2015 as US 1111, NM 37Source: 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.

Encino Lookout is a 59-foot Aermotor MC-39 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot steel cab, standing on Encino Point at about 9,867 feet in Rio Arriba County.1,2,3 The tower is older than the site it stands on. A 2020 New Mexico review, citing a document by Barbara Zinn, says it was first erected at Skinner Ridge on the Kaibab National Forest in 1929 or 1933, and that it was still standing there in 1941.2 The Santa Fe National Forest's own history describes that Skinner Ridge tower as abandoned when the forest moved it in 1948.3

The forest moved the tower to a Santa Fe warehouse in 1948.3 It had first been meant for Barillas Peak, but when the Regional Office gave up on Barillas in 1949, it was erected at Encino Point instead.3 In November 1949 the L-4 cabin and log cabin from Cerro Valdez were moved to the new site.2,3 The Encino site was constructed in July 1950 as it presently exists.1

After her husband moved to other Forest work in the mid-1970s, Manuelita became the main lookout, staffing Encino until the mid-1980s with Norman Montoya as her relief.3 An appendix on life at the lookout in the same history says regular staffing ended in 1983 or 1984, when the lookout was closed, and that Montoya afterward went up by day in fire season, with little manning.3 The 2020 review, by contrast, calls Encino the only lookout on the Coyote Ranger District and says it is currently staffed.2 I did not find when staffing resumed.

A 1988 thematic review found the Encino complex not eligible for the National Register, because the cabins had been moved and the lookout was younger than 50 at the site.2 The register added Encino on August 30, 2015, as US 1111 (NM 37).1 The 2020 review notes the complex is now 70 years old and should be re-evaluated.2

The register files Encino under the Lincoln National Forest, while the Santa Fe history and the 2020 review place it on the Santa Fe National Forest's Coyote Ranger District.1,2,3 I found no public visiting or rental information in these sources. The 2020 review calls it staffed, so treat it as a working tower and do not climb it.

  1. Encino Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/encino-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. New Mexico Lookouts 2020 Year-End Report, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Fire Lookout History of the Santa Fe National Forest (U.S. Forest Service, April 2017), npshistory.com, https://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/3/santa-fe/fire-lookout-history.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Encino Lookout
Photo: Mark Gutzman, via 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, 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, 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: 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, agency, staffing, 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.