El Caso Lookout Complex

Built in 1934. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The El Caso Lookout Complex is located in the Gila National Forest north of Apache Creek, New Mexico. Built in 1934 by the Works Progress Administration, the complex was one of three New Deal-era forest fire lookouts built in Catron County.”
Wikipedia article El Caso Lookout Complex, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Catron County · listed in 1988 · category: Structure · built in 1934.

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 2 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Gila National Forest, El Caso Lake, 87829
When was it listed? January 1988
Category. structure
Also known as. National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region TR
Census division. Quemado
When was it built? 1934
National Register reference number. 87002476 - 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

108 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 108 fires within 5 miles of El Caso Lookout Complex between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,373 acres in total. 101 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	101
Recreation and ceremony	3
Smoking	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Debris and open burning	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
8 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	Gila National Forest	WELL
4 September 1995	Natural	75 acres	Gila National Forest	INDIO
30 September 1995	Natural	1,600 acres	Gila National Forest	CHUCK
9 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	Socorro District	13 FIRE
8 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	Gila National Forest	POINT
8 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	Gila National Forest	LAKE
8 August 2005	Natural	under an acre	Gila National Forest	CASO
8 August 2005	Natural	under an acre	Gila National Forest	PORCUPINE

Every fire recorded in Catron 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 El Caso Lookout Complex: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
	Materials Pit 69-21-F	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Catron 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87002476 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Catron County	All 7 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.