FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · El Dorado County, California

Armstrong Hill Lookout

Aermotor observation cab on an 80-foot steel tower in the Eldorado National Forest; built 1937, now closed, with a 2004 register note that dismantling was planned.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Register note says the lookout is closed; the grounds are accessible to visitors

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Closed lookout; visitors should not climb it. The June 2020 visit report says the tower is in rough shape, with the first two flights of stairs missing and all of the glass broken out.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2020 visit report)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor 7x7 observation cab on an 80-foot X-brace open steel tower, with a BC-201 cabin for the operatorHouse: BC-201; tower: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1937
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
5,707 ft (1,740 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
El Dorado County, California
Coordinates
38.54233, −120.38428
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-armstrong-hill

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.2 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. 1937 BuiltRegister 'Built' field gives 1937Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1938 EventAnnual forest fire guard school opened at Armstrong Lookout the week before the June 2, 1938 Mountain Democrat notice; Ranger George B. Young of Lumberyard District in chargeSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 StaffedJanuary 1, 2003 register comment recalls a lookout named Mike moving to the hill in 1939 or 1940Source: nhlr.org
  4. 1943 Last staffedSame recollection says Mike stayed until about 1943Source: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1943 and 2004
  6. 2004 EventSeptember 4, 2004 register comment: lookout closed, grounds accessible; a USFS employee said it is scheduled for dismantling, but the Eldorado NF has no money for that at this time; four structures on siteSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2014 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 3, 2014 as US 1041, CA 99Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2020 EventJune 12, 2020 visit report: tower in rough shape; first two flights of stairs missing; glass broken outSource: nhlr.org
  9. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Armstrong Hill Lookout stands on Armstrong Hill in El Dorado County, on the Eldorado National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1

The National Historic Lookout Register gives 1937 as the build year. The cab is a 7x7 Aermotor design on an 80-foot open steel tower, and the site also received a BC-201 Fireman-Lookout cabin as the operator's residence.1 By June 1938 the hill already hosted training. A Mountain Democrat notice of June 2, 1938, quoted on a Forest Lookouts history page, reports that the annual forest fire guard school opened at Armstrong Lookout the week before, with Ranger George B. Young of the Lumberyard District in charge.2

A visitor's recollection on the register describes a lookout named Mike who moved to the hill in 1939 or 1940 and stayed until about 1943.1 The hill had no running water or electricity, and the Forest Service telephone line was its only utility.1 The writer says the hill was occupied only during fire season until World War II, and that once the United States joined the war, lookouts were drawn into the air defense network.1 The same writer recalls Mike calling a tree with lineman's steps the original lookout, and admits not knowing whether that was true.1

A September 2004 comment on the register says the lookout is closed, though the grounds are open to visitors.1 The same comment says a Forest Service employee told the writer the lookout is scheduled for dismantling, but the Eldorado forest has no money for that at this time, and that four structures remain on the site.1 The register form lists the site as unstaffed, and the lookout was registered on September 3, 2014.1

The tower is closed, so do not climb it. The most recent visit report on the register, from June 2020, says the tower is in rough shape, with two flights of stairs missing and its glass gone.1 The sources read mention no fires at this lookout.

  1. Armstrong Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/armstrong-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Armstrong Hill, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/armstrong-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Armstrong Hill Lookout
Photo: Nick Sower, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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) 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, height, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, 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.