Monte Vista Lookout Cabin

Built in 1930. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“Monte Vista Lookout Cabin is a structure in Cochise County, Arizona, that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The cabin sits at the base of the Lookout, in the southern portion of the Chiricahua Mountains in the Coronado National Forest.”
Wikipedia article Monte Vista Lookout Cabin, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 76 National Register listings published here for Cochise County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · built in 1930.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Monte Vista Peak, Elfrida, 85632
When was it listed? January 1988
Category. building
Also known as. National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region TR
Census division. Elfrida
When was it built? 1930
National Register reference number. 87002468 - 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

99 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 99 fires within 5 miles of Monte Vista Lookout Cabin between 1992 and 2019, burning about 8,200 acres in total. 86 started naturally. None was 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	86
Recreation and ceremony	7
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Debris and open burning	1
Smoking	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
2 September 2002	Natural	107 acres	Coronado National Forest	BUCKSKIN
3 August 1993	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	PRICE
3 August 1993	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	RASPBERRY
11 August 1994	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	MONTE VISTA
10 August 1995	Natural	25 acres	Coronado National Forest	ROCK
9 July 2009	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	CHIRICAHUA PEAK
9 July 1992	Natural	4.0 acres	Coronado National Forest	SUNSET
7 July 1992	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	COTTONWOOD

Every fire recorded in Cochise County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Monte Vista Lookout Cabin: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Silver. 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
	Zardner	Gold, Silver	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Cochise County

Storms near this property

14 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elfrida, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 6 flash flood, 3 hail, 3 flood, 2 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
August 2022	Flood	Elfrida	$1,500,000	Rainfall of 2 at the headwaters of Rucker Creek traveled downstream and through and existing breach in a berm combined with rainfall in the immediate area, resulted in an exacerbation of flooding in Elfrida. Flood waters expanded west of Highway 191 and became deeper throughout most of the community. A total of 42 residences sustained at least some flood damage. Eleven sustained major damage and 3 were determined to be a total loss. A couple of businesses also sustained flood damage and floodwaters also affected septic tanks and wells.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Elfrida	$100,000	Thunderstorm winds downed or snapped multiple power poles in the Elfrida and McNeal areas. One house, one barn and one garage also suffered substantial roof damage.
August 2022	Flash Flood	Elfrida	$50,000	A breach in the berm along Rucker Creek near Bell and Thompson Roads resulted in flash flooding of roadways near the creek in eastern sections of Elfrida.
August 2021	Flash Flood	Elfrida	$15,000	Two inches of rain in 1 to 2 hours caused flash flooding in central Cochise County. Highway 191 near Birch Rd was flooded. Gleeson Rd. was washed out near mile post 20 and a swift water rescue occurred at mile post 14.
August 1997	Flood	Elfrida	$10,000	Thunderstorms dumped 2-3 inches of rain which caused five homes to be flooded. Damage was mainly to carpet and furniture.
July 2025	Flash Flood	Elfrida	$500	Cochise County Public Health official reported extensive roadway flooding along Courtland Road in Elfrida, AZ.
August 2022	Flood	Elfrida	-	Rainfall of 1-1.5 in 3 hours caused sheet flooding and mud close portions of Gleason, Frontier and Davis Rds. near Elfrida and McNeal.
August 2022	Flash Flood	Elfrida	-	Heavy rain of 1.5 in Elfrida and upstream of a breached berm along Rucker Creek caused flash flooding of streets in Elfrida. Yards also became flooded to the bases of houses.
July 2013	Hail	Elfrida	-	Penny size hail was reported in Elfrida.
July 2002	Flash Flood	Elfrida	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Elfrida	-	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Elfrida	-	no account filed
August 1996	Flash Flood	Elfrida	-	no account filed
August 1996	Hail	Elfrida	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cochise 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

3 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Cima Park Fire Guard Station	3.2 miles	1993
Rustler Park Fire Guard Station	5.8 miles	1993
Barfoot Lookout Complex	6.8 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87002468 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cochise County	All 76 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.