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Fire lookout · Catron County, New Mexico

Saddle Mountain Lookout

Gila National Forest lookout in Catron County, NM: first Aermotor MC-24 tower 1933, steel cab 1966, NHLR-registered 2006; staffing and access not found.

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 wooden cab; cab replaced in 1966 with a steel CL-100 series cabThe designs: CL-100, Aermotor MC-24
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,271 ft (2,521 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Catron County, New Mexico
Coordinates
33.61562, −109.00063
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-saddle-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 3.0 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. 1933 BuiltFirst tower erected as an Aermotor MC-24 with an observation cab; the NHLR Built field gives 1966Sources: westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 1966
  3. 1966 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1966 Replaced by a new structureCab replaced with a steel CL-100 series cab; the NHLR Built field lists this yearSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org
  5. No record between 1966 and 1988
  6. 1988 Condition assessmentFound not eligible in the 1988 thematic National Register reviewSource: firelookout.org
  7. No record between 1988 and 2006
  8. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2006 as US 653, NM 18Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2013 EventForest law enforcement opened an investigation into vandalism at the tower; no details reportedSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 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.

Saddle Mountain lookout stands in Catron County, New Mexico, on the Gila National Forest.1 Its first tower went up in 1933.2,3 That tower was an Aermotor MC-24 with a wooden cab, according to the Register's own description.1

Sources disagree on the build year. The Register's "Built" field says 1966.1 That is the year the cab was replaced with a steel cab from the Forest Service's CL-100 series.1,2,3 The 1933 date and the MC-24 design describe the first tower, and the 1966 date describes the newer cab.2,3

I found no staffing history or named fires in the sources I read. One later item is an October 2013 vandalism investigation at the tower. The Forest's law enforcement section started it, and the sources give no details.2

The Register accepted the lookout on January 2, 2006, as US 653, NM 18, with Dave Lorenz as nominator.1 In 1988 a thematic National Register review found the lookout not eligible for the National Register, because its original design, construction, materials and workmanship had lost their integrity.3 The 2020 chapter report says it should be looked at again, now that it is 54 years old.3

Today the Forest Fire Lookout Association's New Mexico list shows the lookout standing.4 I found nothing on current staffing or whether the public can go up it, so please check with the Gila National Forest before planning a visit.

  1. Saddle Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/saddle-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Saddle Mountain, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/saddle-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. New Mexico Chapter 2020 Year-End Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. New Mexico lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Saddle 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.

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: 1966
    • Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: 1933

    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: 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: what it is built of, design, 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, status, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.