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Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Fox Mountain Lookout

1959 Forest Service CL-100 series cab on a 10-foot block base on Fox Mountain, Gila National Forest; seasonal staffing in 2020; unpaved access road.

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Unpaved Forest Road 770 from NM-32, about 5.2 miles to the summit; a road guide says it is usually impassable November through June and recommends a 4x4.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingCL-100 series steel flat-top cab on a 10-foot block base with storage roomThe design: CL-100
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1959
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
9,333 ft (2,845 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
34.07778, −108.70495
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-fox-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. 1936 EventSurvey station description written by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1936 refers to a lookout station on the summit; the sources do not say what stood thereSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1936 and 1959
  3. 1959 BuiltBuilt in 1959 as a CL-100 series cab on a 10-foot block baseSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org
  4. No record between 1959 and 1988
  5. 1988 Condition assessmentEvaluated for the 1988 thematic National Register nomination and found not eligible due to ageSource: firelookout.org
  6. No record between 1988 and 2006
  7. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2006; nominated by Dave LorenzSource: nhlr.org
  8. 2020 StaffedStaffed seasonally, per the 2020 year-end reportSource: firelookout.org
  9. 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.

Fox Mountain Lookout stands on Fox Mountain in the Gila National Forest, Catron County, New Mexico, at 9,333 feet (2,845 metres).1 The register says it was built in 1959.1 A Forest Lookouts page, citing a Forest Service publication on the region's lookouts, describes a steel CL-100 series cab on a 10-foot cinder block base with a storage room.2 The 2020 report places the design in the Forest Service's standard-plan CL-100 to CL-106 series.3

The 2020 report says the lookout is staffed seasonally.3 I found no source giving staffing for later years, and no source reporting a fire at the site.

A 1988 review for a thematic National Register nomination found Fox Mountain not eligible, because it was only 29 years old at the time.3 The 2020 report suggests it be re-evaluated now that it is 61.3 The register added the lookout on January 2, 2006, with Dave Lorenz as nominator.1

A federal survey marker description, written by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1936, refers to a lookout station on the summit.2 The sources do not say what stood there before the 1959 cab.2

Today, I found no official Forest Service page for the lookout. A road guide says the summit is reached by Forest Road 770, starting from NM-32, and that the road is totally unpaved for about 5.2 miles.4 The same guide says the road is usually impassable from November through June and recommends a 4x4 vehicle.4 No source I found confirms whether the tower itself is open to visitors, so check current conditions before planning a trip.

  1. Fox Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/fox-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Fox Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/fox-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. 2020 Year-End Report, New Mexico Chapter, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. How to drive the unpaved road to the lookout at Fox Mountain in New Mexico, Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/7050-fox-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Fox Mountain Lookout
Photo: 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, 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, 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, agency, 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.