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Fire lookout · Nevada County, California

Banner Mountain Lookout

Nevada County lookout manned since 1911 on a wooden tower; steel tower of 1926 with a 1926 cab; registered 2019 and staffed by volunteers through fire season in 2026.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

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

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerSteel tower with a 1926 Aermotor cab; newspapers give 60 ft (1926, 1971) or 65 ft (1948), replacing a wooden tower of about 40 ftThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1911
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,908 ft (1,191 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit (Cal Fire NEU)
Land
Unknown
Location
Nevada County, California
Coordinates
39.24572, −120.96555
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-banner-mountain

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 3.5 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. 1911 BuiltWooden lookout tower erected in spring 1911; B.F. Howe began duty July 1, 1911Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1914 Event391 visitors registered at the tower in JuneSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1926 BuiltSteel tower built jointly by state and federal forestry departments; register dates the lookout to 1926; newspapers give 60 ftSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1930 EventThree-room observer house completed at the tower base, built by the Forest Service and the stateSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 StaffedStation staffed again for a while in October amid debris-burning warningsSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1950 EventUsed as a combination fire observation and Ground Observer Corps station (1950s)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1961 AlteredOriginal 1926 Aermotor cab remodeled to add a catwalkSource: nhlr.org
  8. 1962 BurnedOriginal lookout residence burnedSource: nhlr.org
  9. 1963 Replaced by a new structureReplacement house and garage constructed 1963-4Source: nhlr.org
  10. 1971 StaffedTwo students staffed the tower through two fire seasons; a paper boasted of California's first 'Women's Liberation' fire lookout crewSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1971 and 2008
  12. 2008 EventProject description proposes removing trees that obscure the sight-line toward Nevada City, Grass Valley and Cascade ShoresSource: ceqanet.lci.ca.gov
  13. 2008 StaffedListed among lookouts that may be staffed during the 2008 fire seasonSource: citlink.net
  14. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 24, 2019 as US 1334, CA 157Source: nhlr.org
  15. 2026 StaffedFire plan says the lookout is staffed annually through fire season by volunteer staffSource: 34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net
  16. 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.

The Banner Mountain lookout stands about four miles east of Nevada City, in Nevada County,1,2 and has been a fire lookout site since 1911.3 A 1914 newspaper account says the station came about because the forest needed better ways to find fires.3 The first tower was a wooden structure put up in the spring of 1911, and B.F. Howe began duty on it July 1, 1911.3 A 1931 trade report puts that frame tower at 40 feet.3

In 1926 a steel tower replaced the wooden one.3 A 1926 Livermore Journal item gave its height as 60 feet and said the state and federal forestry departments had put it up together.3 The register dates the lookout to 1926, but it also says the original platform tower went up in 1911, and that the 1926 cab was reworked in 1961 to add a catwalk.2 Newspapers disagree on the height: a 1948 report says 65 feet, and a 1971 report says 60 feet.3

Howe stayed on the job for decades. A December 1931 trade report says he had served there more than two decades.3 In June 1914 the tower register logged 391 visitors.3 In October 1938 the forest supervisor had the station staffed again for a while, because of weather and the amount of debris being burned.3 In the 1950s it also served as both a fire observation post and a Ground Observer Corps station.3 In 1971 two students staffed the tower through two fire seasons, and one paper boasted of California's first 'Women's Liberation' fire lookout crew.3

The original residence burned in 1962, and a replacement house and garage went up in 1963 and 1964.2 A 2008 project description proposed clearing trees that blocked the view toward Nevada City, Grass Valley and Cascade Shores.4 The register lists the tower as administered by CAL FIRE's Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit and records its registration as October 2019.2

Today a 2026 CAL FIRE unit fire plan says volunteers staff the lookout every year during fire season.1 A CAL FIRE list of lookouts that might be staffed in 2008 also named Banner Mountain.5 The sources read for this story do not say whether the tower is open to visitors or rented out, so no access advice is given here.

  1. 2026 NEU Fire Plan, CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit, https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/osfm-website/what-we-do/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/pre-fire-planning/2026-maps/2026-neu-fire-plan.pdf?rev=4695793401484edbb97cc2bd81563021&hash=1BDDD77D3D9F93682607548780C4B3C6 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Banner Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/banner-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Banner Mountain - Forest Lookouts, California Lookouts (compilation of 1911 to 1971 newspaper and trade items), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/banner-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Banner Mountain Fire Station-Maintenance Project, CEQAnet, https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2008098211 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. CAL FIRE lookout staffing list for the 2008 fire season, mirrored at citlink.net, https://www.citlink.net/~dburnett/CAL%20FIRE%20DATA/Lookouts.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Banner Mountain Lookout - 2009
Banner Mountain Lookout - 2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Banner Mountain Lookout
Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Banner Mountain Lookout
Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1926 - Newly Constructed
1926 - Newly Constructed (1926)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1912 - Tower constructed in 1911
1912 - Tower constructed in 1911 (1912)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, 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, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. 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

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