Tusayan in Coconino County, Arizona — The American Mountains (Southwest)
The Tusayan Lookout Tree
Early Fire Detection on the Kaibab National Forest
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
1. Tusayan Lookout Tree Marker
The Tusayan Lookout Tree is an example of one of the earliest fire detection systems in American history.
Early rangers were tasked with keeping the forest safe, especially from wild fire. With little funding and no staff, rangers would simply venture to the highest point on the landscape and look for fires.
A ranger or fire guard would lop off the top of a tree and fit it with a platform complete with a railing, a chair, a telephone, a map board and a compass.
By 1905, rangers were modifying trees with good views of the landscape into lookout trees. A person known as a lookout staffed the tree and located fires on the ground. A patrolman known as a smoke chaser would head off in the direction of the blaze and put it out.
The Kaibab used lookout trees from 1905 through the 1940s. By the 1930s wooden and steel towers replaced many lookout trees. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a government sponsored work force under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, constructed many of the towers on the Kaibab National Forest.
Erected by Arizona Public Service Company and the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
this page online
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Environment • Parks & Recreational Areas. A significant historical year for this entry is 1905.
Location. 35° 58.213′ N, 112° 8.231′ W. Marker is in Tusayan, Arizona, in Coconino County. It can be reached from Fire Road 2607 0.2 miles west of Long Jim Loop Road. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Grand Canyon AZ 86023, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Flagstaff & High Country and in Hopi. It is also in the American Southwest, in the Mountain West, on the Colorado Plateau, and at the Four Corners. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain and also Mexico’s Alta California.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: John Wesley Powell Boat (approx. 0.7 miles away); Mission 66 (approx. 5.6 miles away); Albright Training Center History (approx. 5.6 miles away); Horace M. Albright (approx. 5.6 miles away); Blacksmith Shop
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
2. Tusayan Lookout Tree Marker
Early 1900s lookout on Bill Williams
Also see . . . Kaibab Lookout Trees. (Submitted on October 20, 2019, by Mike Wintermantel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
3. Tusayan Lookout Tree Marker
Hull Tank Lookout Tree and two unknown men (1916)
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
4. Tusayan Lookout Tree Marker
Man constructing a tower on the Forest (1930)
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
5. The Tusayan Lookout Tree and Marker
Photographed by Mike Wintermantel, October 20, 2019
6. The Tusayan Lookout Tree
Lookout platform in tree
Credits. This page was last revised on September 11, 2026. It was originally submitted on October 20, 2019, by Mike Wintermantel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 719 times since then and 84 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on October 20, 2019, by Mike Wintermantel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
