FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tehama County, California

Ball Rock Lookout Site

Tehama County, CA cabin on a 10-foot timber tower in the Mendocino NF, built early to mid-1920s per the register; nothing remains at the site and the removal date is unknown.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says nothing 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
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan 4AR cabin on a 10-foot open timber towerThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
Wood
Built
1920
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
6,661 ft (2,030 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Mendocino National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Tehama County, California
Coordinates
39.96676, −122.73822
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-ball-rock

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 its recorded height.

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. 1920 BuiltRegister's Built field reads 'Early to Mid-1920's'; the year shown is the start of that rangeSource: firetower.org
  2. 1927 EventRegister photo captioned 'Ball Rock Lookout - 1927'Source: firetower.org
  3. No record between 1927 and 2020
  4. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 24, 2020Source: 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 Rock is a former lookout site in Tehama County, California, in the Mendocino National Forest.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes the lookout as a Plan 4AR cabin from California Region 5, set on an open timber tower 10 feet high.1 The register treats the early to mid-1920s as the probable construction period.1 The site's elevation is listed as 6,661 feet (2,030 m).1

A photograph on the register page is captioned with the year 1927, so the lookout existed by then.1 The register names the US Forest Service, Mendocino National Forest, as the administrator.1

The register gives no removal date. It says the site holds nothing of the lookout now.1

No source we read describes the site today beyond that, and none says whether it is open to the public.

  1. Ball Rock Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/ball-rock-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Ball Rock, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/ball-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Ball Rock Lookout - 1927
Ball Rock Lookout - 1927 (1927)Photo: Upper Lake Ranger District Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1914
1914 (1914)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, height, status, agency, 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.