Baldy Mountain Lookout
San Juan National Forest
Elevation: 9805
Status: Removed
Year Built: 1920's
Year Removed: ?
Baldy is reported in Administering the National Forests of Colorado: An Assessment of the Architectural and Cultural Significance of Historical Administrative Properties, Table 5, to have been a log lookout.
Mark Roper investigated Wallace Park and Baldy Mountain Lookouts in 2009 and reported the following:
"The only information I have been able to find on Wallace Park Lookout is the 1915 photo we have showing it on its side during construction (I think). The name on the photo implies that it was probably located around Wallace Park (northeast of Missionary Ridge and Baldy Mountain).
"There was a lookout tree identified on the 1908 Ignacio quad that lies on Missionary Ridge between Baldy Mountain and Wallace Park.
"Here are the references of Baldy Mountain Lookout, but during different time periods:
1) The 1921 San Juan map (below) identifies a lookout on Baldy Mountain. It no longer appears on the 1928 or subsequent maps. I have not been able to find a photo of this lookout.
2) The book (see above), Administering the National Forest of Colorado: An assessment of the architectural and cultural significance of historical administrative properties, identifies a lookout as Mount Baldy (see Table 5) but no date. (This book was published by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, in 1996.)
3) In our forest history volume, district yearly summaries, there is reference for the year 1940 that 'cutting and peeling timbers for lookout tower on Baldy Mountain to be constructed in 1941.' Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of this either (if it was even constructed). This lookout does not appear on any of the maps."
Visit the Former Fire Lookout Site Register entry for the Baldy Mountain Tower Site.
Mark Roper
1921 San Juan Map