At an elevation of 13,214 feet, Fairview Lookout on the Gunnison National Forest is the highest elevation lookout in the U.S., beating Parkview Lookout, also in Colorado, by nearly 1,000 feet. Constructed by the Forest Service in 1912, it is also one of the few lookouts remaining that are 100 years old! Constructed from rocks on the site, the 18” walls are mortared with a mix of native soil on sit, sand from just down the mountain and then portland and lime and water. It is not known how long the lookout was occupied but from hearsay, it was likely only a few years before it was abandoned because of the frequent lightning strikes. In the 1960s the wooden cupola was removed and the building re-roofed to house radio equipment. This too was a short-lived experiment as lightning damage caused frequent trips to the remote site to repair the radios. In 2008-2009, a USFS-PIT team restored the walls.