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Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Mangas Lookout

Also known as Mangas Mountain Lookout Complex

Catron County fire lookout tower and cabin built 1934 near Mangas, NM; NRHP-listed 1988; the 2020 chapter report marks it for restoration. Visitor access is unconfirmed.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-24 tower with a 12-by-12-foot wooden R3 low-sill cab and no catwalkCab: Region 3 cab; tower: Aermotor MC-24
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
9,666 ft (2,946 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
34.05162, −108.30630
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-mangas

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. 1924 EventLookout Willis Bitmore (spelled that way on the source page) killed by lightning in a cabin on the mountain, per the 1924 newspaper item as quotedSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1924 StaffedA fire lookout was on Mangas mountain in 1924, per a July 1924 Albuquerque Journal item as quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 BuiltAermotor MC-24 tower with observation cab and a ground cabin; 30 feet per the 1934 USFS history, 31.6 feet per the registerSources: westlookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1934 and 1988
  5. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1988Source: en.wikipedia.org
  6. No record between 1988 and 2006
  7. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register on January 2, 2006Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2020 Condition assessment2020 chapter report marks the lookout R, restoration or rehabilitation neededSource: 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.

The Mangas Mountain Lookout Complex sits on Mangas Mountain, near Mangas in Catron County, New Mexico.1,2 Besides the tower, the complex has a building described as a cabin or cottage, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1988.1

A lookout was on the mountain before the present tower went up.3 A July 1924 Albuquerque Journal item, as the Forest Lookouts site quotes it, reports that a fire lookout named Willis Bitmore, spelled that way there, was killed when lightning struck the cabin where he and a companion had taken shelter.3 The item does not say whether that cabin stood where the current tower does.3

The tower went up in 1934.2,3 The Forest Service's history of southwestern lookouts, as the Forest Lookouts site quotes it, describes a 30-foot Aermotor MC-24 tower with an observation cab, along with a ground cabin.3 The register gives the tower as 31.6 feet, with a 12-by-12-foot wooden cab and no catwalk.2 The sources do not explain the difference in height.

A 2020 chapter report of New Mexico lookouts marks Mangas with an R, which means restoration or rehabilitation is needed.4 The same report does not mark it as proposed for the cabin rental program.4

The sources also disagree about the forest. The register places the lookout on the Apache National Forest.2 The 2020 report uses both the Apache and Gila names, and Wikipedia files it under the Gila National Forest.4,1

The sources do not agree on its condition.4,5 A hiking guide calls the complex little altered and says a long forest-road drive reaches it.5 The same guide cautions that the old buildings may be frail and hazardous, and says to stay out of closed ones.5 None of the sources I read say whether the public may climb the tower, and I found no current staffing or rental details for it.

  1. Mangas Mountain Lookout Complex, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangas_Mountain_Lookout_Complex (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mangas Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/mangas-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Mangas, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/mangas.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. 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). ↩
  5. Mangas Mountain Lookout Complex, Catron County New Mexico, Nevada Hiking (nevadahiking.org), https://nevadahiking.org/loc/mangas-mountain-lookout-complex/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mangas Lookout
Photo: 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, 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: 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: register numbers, 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: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.