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Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Mogollon Baldy Lookout

Fire-detection site since at least 1913; the 1948 Aermotor MI-25 tower stands in the Gila Wilderness, with a 1923 log cabin nearby that is on the National Register.

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. OpenStreetMap tags the structure access=permissive.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Reached on foot by a 12-mile hike to the 10,774-foot peak, per a New Mexico Magazine profile of the lookout's seasonal staffer
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2024-04-10)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MI-25 steel K-brace tower with a 14'x14' cab (NHLR says the cab is wooden); Observer's Log Cabin (1923) adjacentThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
10,770 ft (3,283 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
33.27154, −108.59440
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-mogollon-baldy

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 3.1 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. 1913 EventSite used for fire detection since at least 1913, when fires were located with a protractor on top of a stumpSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1921 BuiltLumber and materials packed in on burros to build a small cab on a tower after fire seasonSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1923 BuiltAdjacent log cabin (NHLR: Observer's Log Cabin; Wikipedia: Mogollon Baldy Lookout Cabin), built 1923Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1924 BuiltA new lookout tower constructed with a cab on topSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1924 and 1948
  6. 1948 BuiltCurrent tower constructed on the same location; Aermotor MI-25 (surplus military type) about 30 feet high with a 14x14 cabSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1948 Replaced by a new structurePresent steel tower with wooden cab erected, replacing earlier towers on the same spot.Source: firelookout.org
  8. No record between 1948 and 1988
  9. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesMogollon Baldy Lookout Cabin listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the listing does not include the towerSource: en.wikipedia.org
  10. No record between 1988 and 2022
  11. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register as US 1588, NM 46 on May 22, 2022Source: 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.

Fire watchers have used the Mogollon Baldy site since at least 1913, pinpointing fires with a protractor set atop a stump.1 The early setup was humble. A 1921 entry on the Forest Lookouts site describes lumber packed in on burros to build a small cab on a tower after fire season.2 A new tower with a cab on top followed in 1924.2

The tower that stands today dates to 1948. The National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) says it was constructed that year on the same location, and it describes a 30-foot-high steel tower with a wooden 14-by-14-foot cab.1 Forest Lookouts names the model as an Aermotor MI-25, a design the military fielded in World War II and later sold off as surplus.2

A log cabin stands near the tower. The NHLR calls it the Observer's Log Cabin and dates it to 1923.1 Wikipedia describes the Mogollon Baldy Lookout Cabin as built in 1923 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It notes that the listing does not include the tower itself.3

Sara Irving has kept watch from the tower for 42 summers, according to a New Mexico Magazine profile dated April 10, 2024.4 The approach is a 12-mile hike. On the peak she follows lightning, watches for smoke and passes along radio traffic.4 She says hers is the only tower in the Gila that is fully in the wilderness.4 She also remembers a season when roughly 2,300 logs from the Mogollon Baldy Fire blocked the trail and no one came up the mountain.4

The NHLR registered the tower on May 22, 2022, as US 1588, NM 46, and says the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's New Mexico list shows it as standing.5

I did not find a source that says whether visitors can climb the tower. Because the approach is a long hike into wilderness, anyone planning a trip should check with the Gila National Forest first.

  1. Mogollon Baldy Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/mogollon-baldy-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mogollon Baldy, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/mogollon-baldy.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Mogollon Baldy Lookout Cabin, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogollon_Baldy_Lookout_Cabin (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Sara Irving profile, New Mexico Magazine, https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/gila-wilderness-lookout-sara-irving/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. New Mexico Fire Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

May 2009 photo
May 2009 photo (2009)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mogollon Baldy Lookout
Photo: Gila National Forest, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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: 1948
    • Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: 1923

    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, 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: 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, staffing, 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

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