Photos: Atascosa Peak fire lookout in 1967

Dorothy Williams was a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout at Atascosa Peak northwest of Nogales for the summer months of 1967.

The Atascosa Lookout, built between 1930 and 1933, was a 14-by-14-foot structure that served as an active fire-sighting post until the late 1970s. In that time period, improved aerial detection of fires led the U.S. Forest Service to stop staffing many lookouts.

It served as a summer roost for a string of solitary fire spotters, including the late author Edward Abbey, whose books included "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang."

The lookout - sited on a 6,249-foot summit northwest of Nogales - was destroyed during the Murphy Complex Fire in 2011, which burned nearly 70,000 acres.

Photos © Arizona Daily Star or Tucson Citizen, where applicable