Devil’s Head Lookout Tower

Devil’s Head Fire Lookout, the last of the four original Front Range Fire Lookout towers still in continuous use, is over 50 years old and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On clear days, the view from the structure extends at least 100 miles in every direction.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, in 1907 plans were established for seven principal lookouts along the Front Range of the Rockies between New Mexico and Wyoming. Just four of the planned lookouts were actually built; three in Colorado, including Devil’s Head, and one in Wyoming.

The site has been in continuous use since 1912 and is the last full-time lookout in Colorado. Devils Head Lookout was also one of the earliest duty stations in America to have a female fire lookout, although not the first (it was preceded by the Eddy Gulch Lookout in California.) After the United States entered World War I, there were few men available to staff these kinds of towers. In 1919, Helen Dowe, a 30-year-old woman working for the Denver Times applied to the Forest Service. She was hired, and served at the lookout station from 1919 to 1921.