FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sierra County, California

Alaska Peak Lookout Site

Alaska Peak lookout, Tahoe NF, Sierra County, CA: 1934 cab on a 16 ft enclosed tower, burned after 1968; nothing remains. Registered 2020 as US 2005.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in a wildfire after 1968 and not replaced; the register says nothing remains at the site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Enclosed towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 16-foot enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,027 ft (1,227 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Tahoe National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Sierra County, California
Coordinates
39.44859, −121.00565
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-alaska-peak

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.5 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1934 BuiltConstructed as a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 16-foot enclosed timber towerSource: firetower.org
  2. 1936 StaffedCalifornia Ranger item of November 20, 1936, names Leo Chatfield as the lookout on Alaska Peak (as quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 1968
  4. 1968 BurnedRegister: burned in a wildfire after 1968 and not replaced. The year is given only as 'after 1968'.Source: firetower.org
  5. 1968 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "after 1968".Source: FFLOS register entry
  6. No record between 1968 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 15, 2020, on the nomination of Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  8. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Alaska Peak lookout stood in the Tahoe National Forest in Sierra County, California, at 4,027 feet, or 1,227 meters.1 The register dates it to 1934 and describes a Plan BC-301 cabin from California Region 5, perched on a 16-foot enclosed timber tower.1

The Forest Lookouts page quotes the California Ranger from November 1936, which named Leo Chatfield as the lookout on Alaska Peak.2 The paper said that during one lightning storm he sent "the boys" to nine fires, and that they kept the blazes to small acreage.2

According to the register, a wildfire burned the lookout after 1968, and no replacement went up.1 The register gives no year more precise than that.1

The register says nothing remains at the site.1 It names the U.S. Forest Service, Tahoe National Forest, as the administrator.1 No source we read says whether the site is open to visitors or how to reach it. Anyone heading into the forest to look for it should check with the Tahoe National Forest first.

  1. Alaska Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/alaska-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Alaska Peak, Forest Lookouts (California Lookouts), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/alaska-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

1939
1939 (1939)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1968 photo
1968 photo (1968)Photo: Michael Szyhowski, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, staffing, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.