Fire lookout · Otero County, New Mexico
Weed Lookout
Weed Lookout is a 1926 Aermotor LX-24 tower on the Lincoln National Forest, the oldest standing lookout there, still standing and NRHP-listed since 1988.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. On USDA Forest Service land (Sacramento Ranger District, Lincoln National Forest); no rental or stay program found in sources reviewed.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- Specific trail access not confirmed in sources reviewed; check Lincoln National Forest Sacramento Ranger District guidance.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerAermotor LX-24, 48-foot steel tower with a 7x7-foot steel cabThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1926
- Height
- 48 ft (14.6 m)
- Elevation
- 8,013 ft (2,442 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Otero County, New Mexico
- Coordinates
- 32.80639, −105.56014
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-nm-weed
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
- 1926 BuiltAermotor LX-24 tower erected on Sacramento Ranger District, Lincoln National Forest; oldest standing lookout on the forest.Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1926 and 1966
- 1966 AlteredOriginal wooden stairs replaced with metal steps.Source: nhlr.org
- 1966 RestoredOriginal wooden steps replaced with metal ones.Source: firelookout.org
- 1978 EventCabin and shed at the site were removed.Source: nhlr.org
- 1978 RemovedCabin and shed that stood at the lookout site were removed.Source: firelookout.org
- 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places, January 28, 1988, as part of the National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region multiple-property listing.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- No record between 1988 and 2015
- 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, August 30, 2015 (per queue brief, drawn from NHLR detail page).Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Weed Lookout went up in 1926 on the Sacramento Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest, in Otero County, New Mexico.1 It's an Aermotor LX-24 tower, 48 feet tall, capped by a 7-by-7-foot steel cab, and no other standing lookout on the Lincoln National Forest predates it.1 A cabin and shed once stood at the site for the lookout staff, but the Forest Service removed them in 1978.1 The tower's original wooden stairs were swapped for metal ones in 1966.1
Little public detail survives about who staffed Weed over the decades or which fires it spotted; the main record, the National Historic Lookout Register's description, focuses on the structure itself rather than a roster of observers.1 It remains an active Forest Service facility rather than an abandoned or relocated one.
The tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1988, as part of a multiple-property listing covering National Forest fire lookouts in the Southwestern Region.2 Later, in 2015, it was also entered into the National Historic Lookout Register.1
Weed Lookout still stands today and is cared for by the Lincoln National Forest. It sits near other historic Lincoln National Forest lookouts, including the similarly aged Alamo Lookout, which the Forest Service's own recreation pages mention in the same breath as a comparable 1926 Aermotor structure.3 Nothing in the sources reviewed here indicates the tower is open for public rental or overnight stays; anyone wanting to visit should check current Forest Service guidance for the Sacramento Ranger District before heading out, since access details for the immediate site were not confirmed.
- Weed Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nm/weed-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
- Weed Lookout Tower, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed_Lookout_Tower (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
- Lincoln National Forest Recreation Areas, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lincoln/recarea/?recid=79992 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) (opens another site) Gave us: ownership, access Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 19 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
- Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) (opens another site) Gave us: height, register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1107 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA New Mexico lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: work on Weed Lookout (opens another site)
- Wikipedia: Weed Lookout Tower (opens another site)
- Additional photos (opens another site)
- Website (fs.usda.gov) (opens another site)
- Wikidata item Q85814767 (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 357611156 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.