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Fire lookout · Socorro County, New Mexico

San Mateo Lookout

Also known as San Mateo Peak Fire Lookout Tower

1934 Aermotor LX-25 fire tower in Socorro County, NM; on standby and reached by a five-mile trail; NHLR US 668 (2006); not NRHP-evaluated in 1988.

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
Trail
Reached by a five-mile trail, per the register and the 2020 report
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower59-foot-3-inch Aermotor LX-25 tower with 7-by-7-foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
59 ft (18.1 m)
Elevation
10,098 ft (3,078 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Socorro County, New Mexico
Coordinates
33.61122, −107.43153
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-san-mateo

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 2.8 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. 1934 BuiltErected in 1934 (2020 report); register build year 1934Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1988
  3. 1988 Condition assessmentNot evaluated during the 1988 thematic NRHP nomination; 2020 report says it should be evaluatedSource: firelookout.org
  4. No record between 1988 and 2006
  5. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 30, 2006 as US 668, NM 22; nominated by Dave LorenzSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2020 EventDescribed as currently on standby status; reached by a five-mile trailSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  7. 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 San Mateo Lookout is a fire tower in Socorro County, New Mexico, on the Magdalena Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest.1 It was erected in 1934 and is a 59-foot-3-inch Aermotor LX-25 tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1,2 The register calls it the oldest surviving detection facility on the Magdalena district and one of the few remaining U.S. examples of the platform-style, ladder-and-stairs design.1

The sources we read do not name who staffed the tower or what fires it watched.

The register and the 2020 state report both describe it as on standby and say it is reached by a trail of about five miles.1,2 The 2020 report also says the tower was not evaluated for the National Register in the 1988 thematic nomination and should be evaluated and nominated if eligible.2

The state index still lists it as standing.3 We found no current staffing or public access notice, so anyone thinking about the hike should check with the Magdalena Ranger District first.

  1. San Mateo Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/san-mateo-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. New Mexico Chapter 2020 Year-End Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nm-2020.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. New Mexico Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of San Mateo 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.

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, 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: 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: 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, height, status, agency, 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

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