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Fire lookout · Tehama County, California

Ball Mountain Lookout (Tehama County)

Also known as Ball Mountain

Mendocino NF lookout site in Tehama County: register dates a BC-301 cabin on a 20 ft enclosed tower to 1935; only the foundation remains. Not the Siskiyou Ball Mountain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Only the foundation remains at the site; removal date unknown

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 on a 20 ft enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,567 ft (2,002 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Mendocino National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Tehama County, California
Coordinates
39.93174, −122.78495
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-ball-mountain-tehama-county

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 3.6 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. 1935 BuiltRegister date for the BC-301 cabin on a 20 ft enclosed timber tower; a 1936 notice conflicts (see resolved_conflicts)Source: firetower.org
  2. 1936 EventAugust 8, 1936 notice: the lookout site, long used by the government, was bought from the Pickering Lumber company and a new station would be built thereSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 2020
  4. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 23, 2020 as US 2044, CA 150Source: firetower.org
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Ball Mountain rises to about 6,567 feet in Tehama County, and the register places its lookout site in the Mendocino National Forest.1 The register says the lookout was built for that forest in 1935, as a Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 20-foot enclosed timber tower.1

A 1936 newspaper notice, quoted on a lookout history page, tells a different story.2 The notice says the government had used the spot for years, had bought it from Pickering Lumber, and planned a new station on it.2 The 1935 date and the 1936 notice do not agree, and no other source we found settles which is right.1,2

The sources also differ on the forest.1,2 A lookout history page that carries the 1936 notice heads the site as part of the Shasta National Forest.2 The register names the Mendocino.1

The register gives the removal date as unknown, and says only the foundation remains at the site.1 No source we found says whether the public can reach it today.1

  1. Ball Mountain Lookout (Tehama County), Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/ball-mountain-lookout-tehama-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Ball Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, quoting a 1936 newspaper notice, Forest Lookouts (California), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/ball-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Ball Mountain Lookout - 1965
Ball Mountain Lookout - 1965 (1965)Photo: Upper Lake Ranger District Collection, 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, 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.