Heliograph Lookout Complex

Built in 1933. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

One of 31 National Register listings published here for Graham County · listed in 1988 · category: Structure · built in 1933.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Coronado National Forest, Old Columbine, 85546
When was it listed? January 1988
Category. structure
Also known as. National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region TR
Census division. Safford
When was it built? 1933
National Register reference number. 87002467 - 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

178 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 178 fires within 5 miles of Heliograph Lookout Complex between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,103 acres in total. 114 started naturally. 19 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	114
Recreation and ceremony	27
Arson/incendiarism	19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Smoking	2
Debris and open burning	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2

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 1995	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	DEADMAN
4 September 2009	Natural	2.0 acres	Coronado National Forest	HELLDIVE
26 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	HELIOGRAPH
23 September 2000	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	CUNNINGHAM
22 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	MEADOW
2 September 2001	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	MOONSHINE CREEK FIRE
15 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	BEAR CANYON
8 August 1992	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	not named

Every fire recorded in Graham County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Heliograph Lookout Complex: 2 occurrences, 2 prospects. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Copper, Tungsten. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Barton Property	Tungsten	Prospect
Shaft	Copper	Occurrence
Adits and Shaft	Gold	Prospect
Name Unknown	Gold	Occurrence	Vein

Every working recorded in Graham County

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

2 within 8 miles

Other 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
	Columbine Work Station	5.2 miles	1993
	Webb Peak Lookout Tower	6.0 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87002467 in Record Group 79.
Graham County	All 31 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.