FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sierra County, New Mexico

Hillsboro Peak Lookout

Also known as Hillsboro

Steel Aermotor MC-40 tower on Hillsboro Peak above a 1925 log cabin; NRHP-listed 1988; sources disagree on earlier tower dates and elevation.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Wikipedia says the log cabin is reportedly open for public overnight use. The sources read do not say whether the tower itself is open to climb.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower45.9-ft Aermotor MC-40 tower with 7x7 ft metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
46 ft (14.0 m)
Elevation
9,991 ft (3,045 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Sierra County, New Mexico
Coordinates
32.95255, −107.77958
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-hillsboro-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 2.7 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. 1915 EventNewspaper item mentions a fire lookout tower on Hillsboro Peak; earlier than the Register's early-1920s wooden towerSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 BuiltLog observer's cabin (ground house) added to the site; Wikipedia gives 1925 for one or both of the tower and cabinSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.org
  3. 1933 Built45.9-ft Aermotor MC-40 steel tower with 7x7 metal cab erectedSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  4. 1933 Replaced by a new structureSteel lookout tower erected in 1933.Source: firelookout.org
  5. No record between 1933 and 1965
  6. 1965 AlteredModern metal ground quarters erected; the log cabin still standsSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  7. No record between 1965 and 1988
  8. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesLookout tower and log cabin listed January 28, 1988Sources: en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.org
  9. No record between 1988 and 2006
  10. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2006 as US 651, NM 16Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2013 FireLightning-caused Silver Fire; tower wrapped in fire-resistant material to protect itSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  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 Hillsboro Peak lookout is in the Black Range of the Gila National Forest, in Sierra County, New Mexico.1,2 Two lookout listings give Grant County instead.3,4 The National Historic Lookout Register gives the lookout an elevation of 9,991 feet, while Wikipedia gives the peak 10,020 feet, so the two sources do not agree.1,2

The record starts before the steel tower. According to the Register, the first structure was made of wood and went up in the early 1920s.1 A May 1915 item in The Santa Fe New Mexican, quoted on a lookout history site, already mentions a fire lookout tower on Hillsboro Peak. That points to an earlier tower than the Register's date, and the sources do not settle the question.3

In 1925 a log observer's cabin was added to the site, and the Register says it is still there.1,5 Wikipedia gives 1925 for one or both of the tower and the cabin, and says a 2007 photo shows a tower that looks different from the 1920s one.2

According to the Register, the steel tower is 45.9 feet tall, an Aermotor MC-40 with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, and dates from 1933.1 The 2020 New Mexico lookout report gives the height as 45 feet.5 The Register also says that in 1965 the Gila National Forest put up modern metal quarters in place of the ground house, yet it says the log house is still there.1 The 2020 report says the site also has metal quarters from 1965 alongside the original 1925 log cabin.1,5

The Register accepted the site on January 2, 2006, as US 651.1 The National Register of Historic Places listed the lookout and the log cabin in January 1988.5,2

In June 2013 the lookout was covered in fire-resistant material to shield it from the Silver Fire, which lightning caused.3

A lookout listing shows the tower as standing today.4 Wikipedia says the log cabin can reportedly be used by the public overnight.2 No current booking listing turned up, and the sources do not say whether the tower itself is open to visitors, so check with the Gila National Forest before planning a visit.

  1. Hillsboro Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/hillsboro-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Hillsboro Peak Lookout Tower and Cabin, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsboro_Peak_Lookout_Tower_and_Cabin (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hillsboro Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/hillsboro-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. New Mexico Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. New Mexico lookout report, Forest Fire Lookout Association New Mexico Chapter, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hillsboro Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hillsboro Peak Lookout
Photo: 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: 1933
    • 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. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, 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.