This approximately 30' metal tower of local design with approximately 7'x7' cab was constructed partway up the backdrop mountain close to the Pike National Forest boundary, possibly in 1957 by the Air Force Academy, and was removed around 1980. The lookout was staffed for only a few years. It was built after a wildfire escaped from the construction site of the Academy around September 1956. The fire burned down the draw from the Air Force Academy Chapel all the way to I-25, the route of the main access road. It killed many ponderosa pines which had been deemed essential to a parkway-like entrance to the Academy campus. The damage is still visible today in the lack of larger trees.