FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Butte County, California

Big Bar Mountain Lookout Site

Plumas NF lookout (Butte Co.): steel station replaced a tree lookout in 1925; 55-ft steel tower built 1949; destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire; no tower remains.

Standing: The tower still stands, but its cab is gone (FFLA).

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 sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301, 1949 Revision, on a 55-foot K-brace open steel towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1925
Height
55 ft (16.8 m)
Elevation
4,343 ft (1,324 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Plumas National Forest; CAL FIRE cooperator
Land
Federal land
Location
Butte County, California
Coordinates
39.77730, −121.42786
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-big-bar-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 3.1 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. 1924 EventForest Service supervised construction of a new steel lookout station to replace the tree lookout (Feather River Bulletin, Oct 9, 1924)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1924 First staffedJames Hanson listed as lookout man at Big Bar (Feather River Bulletin, May 22, 1924). Earliest staffing found in the sources; the tree lookout predates it.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1925 BuiltSteel lookout station replaced the old tree lookout (Plumas National Bulletin/Oroville Daily Register, Aug 1925). A May 28, 1925 report expected a 65-foot tower.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1928 StaffedRoy Deer stationed as lookout on Big Bar Mountain (Oroville Mercury Register, Oct 8, 1928)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1928 and 1949
  6. 1949 BuiltConstructed 1949 to California Region 5 Plan BC-301, 1949 Revision, on a 55-foot K-brace steel tower (registry). Sources do not say whether it replaced the 1925 station.Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1949 and 1976
  8. 1976 Last staffedPeakbagging says not staffed since about 1976, but the same page says CAL FIRE staffs it as needed. Unresolved.Source: peakbagging.com
  9. No record between 1976 and 2018
  10. 2018 Burned'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "2018 - Camp Fire".Source: FFLOS register entry
  11. 2018 DestroyedDestroyed in the Camp Fire. Registry says '2018 - Camp Fire'; FFA 2018 report confirms; Peakbagging dates it to November 2018.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.org, peakbagging.com
  12. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 29, 2019; nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  13. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Big Bar Mountain sits in Butte County, in the Plumas National Forest, at about 4,343 feet.1 The earlier lookout was a three-foot-wide platform fixed to a tree trunk about 60 feet up.2 In 1924 the Forest Service supervised construction of a new station on a steel tower to replace it.2 By August 1925 a steel lookout station had replaced the tree lookout.2 The registry gives 1949 as the build date of a 55-foot steel tower, built to a California Region 5 plan.1

James Hanson was the lookout man at Big Bar in 1924, Cass Wilkins was the lookout in August 1925, and Roy Deer was stationed there in October 1928.2 Peakbagging says no one has staffed the lookout since about 1976, and that it served as a relay point for communications.3 The same page says CAL FIRE maintains it and brings in staff when needed during fire season, so we could not settle this.3

The Camp Fire destroyed the lookout in 2018.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's 2018 report for its California-Northern chapter says the Big Bar Lookout was destroyed during the Camp Fire.4 Peakbagging dates the loss to November 2018.3

The registry records the lookout as removed in the 2018 Camp Fire, and no source we read describes a surviving tower.1,4 We found no current access information, so we cannot say what remains on the summit or whether anyone can visit.

  1. Big Bar Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/big-bar-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Big Bar Mountain (Forest Lookouts, California section), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/big-bar-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Big Bar Mountain Lookout, California, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/BigBarMtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. 2018 Year-End Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association California-Northern Chapter, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-ca-north-2018.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Big Bar Mountain Lookout - 2008
Big Bar Mountain Lookout - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
2003
2003 (2003)Photo: Fred Johnson, 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone

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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height 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, height, 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.