Fire lookout · Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Kiowa Lookout
Also known as Kiowa Mountain
1923 50-ft Aermotor LL-25 tower on Kiowa Mountain in the Carson NF; 1935 CCC observer's cabin; registered 1996; a 2020 report urges NRHP re-evaluation.
- 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 tower50-foot steel Aermotor LL-25 tower with LL-25 cabThe design: Aermotor LL-25
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1923
- Height
- 50 ft (15.2 m)
- Elevation
- 9,692 ft (2,954 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
- Coordinates
- 36.59728, −106.10011
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-nm-kiowa
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
- 1923 Built50-foot steel Aermotor LL-25 tower erectedSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org
- 1935 BuiltObserver's cabin at the base built by the Civilian Conservation CorpsSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
- 1935 AlteredObserver cabin built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.Source: firelookout.org
- No record between 1935 and 1996
- 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 30, 1996; nominated by Kurt L. Winchester, District RangerSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1996 and 2020
- 2020 Condition assessmentReport says re-evaluate and nominate if eligible; lists Kiowa with the R (restoration or rehabilitation) code. Year from the report's title, 2020 Year-End Report (in the text, cabin 85 years old and lookout 97)Source: firelookout.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.
Kiowa Lookout sits on Kiowa Mountain in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, on the El Rito Ranger District of the Carson National Forest.1,2
The tower was erected in 1923. It is a 50-foot steel Aermotor of the LL-25 model, and the Register counts it as one of only two LL-25 models still in place in the Southwestern Region.1,2
The observer's cabin at the base dates from 1935, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built it.1,3 Interior stairs now replace the original outside ladder.1
A 1988 thematic National Register nomination of Southwestern lookouts had too little information to say whether Kiowa was eligible.3
The Register accepted Kiowa on December 30, 1996, on a nomination by Kurt L. Winchester, a district ranger. That 1996 entry describes the tower as still in active use.1
A 2020 New Mexico report groups Kiowa with sites marked R, meaning restoration or rehabilitation is needed. It recommends a fresh eligibility review, with nomination if the lookout qualifies.3
Today a lookout listing shows the tower as standing.4 No current staffing or rental notice turned up in the sources, so check with the Carson National Forest before planning a visit.
- Kiowa Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/kiowa-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Kiowa Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/kiowa-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- 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). ↩
- New Mexico Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, 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, 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
- 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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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 196 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA New Mexico lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: work on Kiowa Lookout (opens another site)
- Kiowa Mountain 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.