BlockFrom the record
One of 76 National Register listings published here for Cochise County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · built in 1938.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Silver Peak Lookout Complex
Built in 1938. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
- Address. Coronado National Forest, Portal, 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? 1938
- National Register reference number. 87002469 - 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
59 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 59 fires within 5 miles of Silver Peak Lookout Complex between 1992 and 2020, burning about 460 acres in total. 34 started naturally. 2 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 | 34 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2009 | Natural | under an acre | Coronado National Forest | ONION CREEK |
| 6 September 2009 | Natural | under an acre | Coronado National Forest | TURKEY PARK |
| 29 September 2016 | Natural | under an acre | Coronado National Forest | CAVE CREEK SOUTH |
| 23 September 1992 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Coronado National Forest | METHODIST |
| 2 September 2007 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Coronado National Forest | BARFOOT |
| 2 September 2006 | Natural | under an acre | Coronado National Forest | LONG PARK |
| 5 August 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Coronado National Forest | IDA |
| 25 August 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Gila District Office | LIMESTONE |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 41 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 41 workings within 5 miles of Silver Peak Lookout Complex: 26 past producers, 12 prospects, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Silver, Tungsten, Gold, Copper, Lead, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bermoudy Mine | Copper, Lead, Silver, Gold, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Bismuth | Gold, Bismuth, Silver | Prospect | ||
| Chiricahua Mine | Copper, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Tungsten | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Copper, Galena, Lead | |
| Columbia Mine | Lead, Copper, Zinc, Tungsten, Silver, Bismuth | Past Producer | Contact Metamorphic | |
| Columbia Mine | Zinc, Lead, Silver, Tungsten, Copper, Bismuth | Past Producer | ||
| Galeyville Mines | Lead, Silver, Tungsten, Copper | Past Producer | 1878, 1945 | |
| Galeyville Mines | Lead, Silver, Copper, Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Grace Mine | Lead, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Humboldt Mine | Silver, Copper, Lead, Manganese | Past Producer | Gold | |
| King Ainsworth Group | Copper, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Molybdenum, Tungsten, Gold | Past Producer | 1885, 1952 |
Storms near this property
6 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portal, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 3 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2021 | Flash Flood | Portal | 1 hurt, $7,000 | Two to four inches of rain in 3 hours in the southern Chiricahua Mountains caused flash flooding of streams over and west of the mountains. Two motorists in one vehicle were stuck in floodwaters east of McNeal on Davis Rd. near milepost 30. An elderly man attempted to drive through waters to rescue them when his vehicle was swept downstream. He was rescued but not before suffering hypothermia from being in the cold water. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Portal | - | A strong thunderstorm formed over Portal, AZ and produced penny sized with no injury or damage to property. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portal | - | Estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 mph occurred southeast of Portal. A Desert Research Institute sensor at Rodeo, NM observed a gust to 60 mph at 1900MST. |
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Portal | - | Three inches of rain in themountains near Portal caused creeks in the area to rise rapidly. A campground became flooded forcing the evacuation of several campers. |
| October 2021 | Hail | Portal | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Flash Flood | Portal | - | 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
4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Portal Ranger Station | 2.2 miles | 1993 |
 | Barfoot Lookout Complex | 4.4 miles | 1988 |
| Rustler Park Fire Guard Station | 4.6 miles | 1993 | |
| Cima Park Fire Guard Station | 5.8 miles | 1993 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 87002469 in Record Group 79. |
| 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.