BlockFrom the record
One of 140 National Register listings published here for Coconino County · listed in 1988 · category: Structure · built in 1933.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Lee Butte Lookout Tower and Cabin
Built in 1933. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
- Address. Woods Canyon, Happy Jack, 86038
- When was it listed? January 1988
- Category. structure
- Also known as. National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region TR
- Census division. Flagstaff
- When was it built? 1933
- National Register reference number. 87002461 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
324 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 324 fires within 5 miles of Lee Butte Lookout Tower and Cabin between 1992 and 2020, burning about 20,242 acres in total. 235 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 235 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 40 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | BLIND |
| 5 September 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | RANCH |
| 4 September 2000 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Coconino National Forest | EEYORE |
| 3 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | FAIN |
| 29 September 2004 | Natural | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | TRACY |
| 29 September 1992 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Coconino National Forest | not named |
| 27 September 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | EZ |
| 26 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Coconino National Forest | GASH |
Mines and quarries near this property
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Lee Butte Lookout Tower and Cabin: 1 past producer, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Volcanic Materials, Pumice. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinder Pit | Pumice | Unknown | ||
| Stoneman Lake No. 1 Cinder Pit | Volcanic Materials | Past Producer | Cinders |
Storms near this property
14 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Happy Jack, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2013: 6 hail, 4 wildfire, 2 funnel cloud, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2000 | Wildfire | Happy Jack | $50,000 | The clover fire near Happy Jack , AZ burned approximately 150 acres in ponderosa pine. A fire truck was engulfed in flames and lost during the fire fighting effort. |
| August 2013 | Heavy Rain | Happy Jack | - | One inch of rain fell in 45 minutes near Hutch Mountain. |
| September 2013 | Funnel Cloud | Happy Jack | - | A thunderstorm produced a funnel cloud about 6 miles east of Mormon Lake. |
| September 2006 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | Nickel sized hail was reported in Happy Jack. |
| August 2001 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | A spotter reported one inch diameter hail 10 miles north of Blue Ridge Reservoir. |
| February 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Happy Jack | - | Seventy-five to one hundred tress (two to three feet in diameter) in the Blue Ridge area were uprooted or broken off by thunderstorm wind. Two homes also recieved minor roof damage. The wind is thought to be the result of a rear flank downdraft. |
| August 1999 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | Weather spotters in Blue Ridge measured hail one inch in diameter. |
| August 1998 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | Weather spotters reported 1.25 inch diameter hail at Buckskin Wash, near Forest Lakes. |
| May 2002 | Wildfire | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Wildfire | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Wildfire | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Hail | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Funnel Cloud | Happy Jack | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
1 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mormon Lake Lookout Cabin | 7.1 miles | 1988 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 87002461 in Record Group 79. |
| Coconino County | All 140 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.