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Fire lookout · San Juan County, New Mexico

Washington Pass Lookout

Navajo Reservation lookout in the Chuska Mountains, San Juan County, NM; NHLR gives a 1936 build and an 81 ft Aermotor LS-40 with a 7x7 cab; FFLA lists it standing.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Ask the tribe before visiting.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40 tower with 7x7 metal cab (NHLR)The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
81 ft (24.7 m)
Elevation
9,179 ft (2,798 m)
Agency
Navajo Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
San Juan County, New Mexico
Coordinates
36.08540, −108.85200 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nm-washington-pass

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. 1936 BuiltBuilt and put into service in 1936 as an 81 ft LS-40 Aermotor tower with a 7x7 metal cab, per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1936 and 2002
  3. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on July 20, 2002 as US 435, NM 10Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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.

Washington Pass Lookout stands in the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Reservation in San Juan County, New Mexico, at 9,179 feet.1 Among the stations in the reservation's New Mexico section, the register lists it as the highest in elevation.1

The register dates the tower's construction and entry into service to 1936. It is an LS-40 Aermotor, 81 feet tall, with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1 It lists the Navajo Indian Reservation as administrator and the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a cooperator.1

The register recorded the lookout on July 20, 2002, under the number US 435, NM 10.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as a standing tower under that number. Its coordinates sit about a kilometer from the register's figures.2,1

The sources I reached do not describe staffing, fires, or any later changes to the tower, and I could not find a fuller history.

Because it sits on tribal land, please check with the Navajo Nation before planning a trip. I found no current visiting information.1

  1. Washington Pass Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/washington-pass-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. New Mexico Lookouts by County, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nm/nm-co/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Washington Pass Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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 location by 990 m.

    • NHLR: 36.08540, −108.85200
    • FFLA: 36.07810, −108.85839

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.