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Fire lookout · Fresno County, California

Bear Mountain Lookout (Fresno County)

Also known as Bear Mountain

60-foot Aermotor tower on Bear Mountain, Fresno County, California, with a CCC residence; now a restricted communications site behind a locked gate, registered 2019.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Register says the lookout is not readily accessible to the public: over 4 miles behind a locked gate on a paved road

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 by 7 foot observation cab; CCC residence built to Forest Service BC-201 planThe designs: BC-201, Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1927
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
3,395 ft (1,035 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire Fresno-Kings Unit
Land
Unknown
Location
Fresno County, California
Coordinates
36.74582, −119.28266
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-bear-mountain-fresno-county

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 3.3 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. 1923 EventResidents of three fire districts petitioned the county for a lookout station; volunteer crews worked on the station and telephone lines in MaySource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 EventStation reported blown down in July 1925Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1927 BuiltState announced construction of a 60-foot steel tower in March 1927; Register dates the tower to circa 1927Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1927 StaffedAgreement with Fresno County announced October 1927; the state to maintain a summer lookout on the mountainSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1927 and 1964
  6. 1964 EventLightning struck the lookout, knocking out telephone lines and the station's radio transmitterSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1964 and 2007
  8. 2007 EventAfter a rumored dismantling, the private landowner let the state keep the lookout on his land, but the historic garage at the site was removed and destroyed.Source: firelookout.org
  9. 2007 RemovedHistoric garage removed and destroyed; Register says the garage and residence cabin had been removed by 2007Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  10. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 27, 2019 as US 1386, CA 209Source: nhlr.org
  11. 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 lookout on Bear Mountain, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Fresno County, California, is administered by the Cal Fire Fresno-Kings Unit.1,2

Residents of three fire districts petitioned the county in April 1923 for a lookout station on the mountain. By late May, volunteer crews were working on the station and its phone lines.3 A July 1925 item says the station had been blown down.3 In March 1927 the state announced that a 60-foot steel tower would be built there, and the Register dates the tower to about 1927.3,2

The Register describes a 60-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot observation cab, and a residence the CCC built to a Forest Service BC-201 design.2 In October 1927 an all-year co-operative fire agreement with Fresno County was announced, with the state committed to keeping a summer lookout on the mountain.3 During the 1950s the state let a private weather-modification company put a flat roof on the cab to hold its instruments, and lookout operators made much use of it as a sun deck.2 Lightning hit the station in October 1964, taking out its phone lines and radio transmitter.3

The Register says the garage and the house were gone by 2007.2 A 2007 Central California report says Cal Fire discussed, in March, a rumor that the lookout would be dismantled.4 The private landowner agreed to let the state keep the facility, but the historic garage was demolished.4 That report names only the garage, so the fate of the house rests on the Register alone.4,2

The Register accepted the lookout on November 27, 2019, and says visitors have limited access to it.2 The station is reached by a paved road past a locked gate more than four miles back.2 The Register describes the site as heavily used for communications.2 Wikipedia says the site now mainly serves communications gear, and it dates the tower to the early 1900s, a date at odds with the 1923 records of a new station.1,3

The sources read do not say who staffed the lookout after the 1920s or whether it detects fires today. Anyone wanting to visit should ask Cal Fire first, since the gate is locked.

  1. Bear Mountain (Fresno County, California), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Mountain_(Fresno_County,_California) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bear Mountain Lookout (Fresno County), National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/bear-mountain-lookout-fresno-county/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bear Mountain, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/bear-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Central California lookout report, 2007 (PDF), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-ca-cent-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Bear Mountain Lookout (Fresno County) - 1999
Bear Mountain Lookout (Fresno County) - 1999 (1999)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1955
1955 (1955)Photo: Cal Fire Fresno-Kings Unit, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tower and BC-201 Residence Cabin - 1955
Tower and BC-201 Residence Cabin - 1955 (1955)Photo: Cal Fire Fresno-Kings Unit, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout (Fresno County)
Photo: Viola Parker - 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, 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.