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Fire lookout · Trinity County, California

Billy's Peak Lookout Site

Trinity County, CA lookout built 1934 per the register, removed spring 1980, nothing remains; a 1952 survey and 1954 newspaper item conflict on dates and tower height.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the tower was removed in the spring of 1980 and nothing remains at the site

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. Sources describe a hiking route to the summit (SummitPost) but say nothing about access rules or closure

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 3 miles and just under 3,000 feet of climbing from a Forest Service road switchback; SummitPost says the trail has not been maintained in quite a while

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 20-foot H-brace open steel tower (register); a 1952 survey describes a 30-foot steel towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1934
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
7,134 ft (2,174 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Trinity County, California
Coordinates
41.12112, −122.74659 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-billys-peak

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 3.5 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. 1934 BuiltRegister: constructed in 1934 as a BC-301 cabin on a 20-foot towerSource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1952
  3. 1952 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description dated 1952 describes a standing lookout house on a 30-foot steel towerSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1954 EventJune 1954 Dunsmuir News item (quoted on hobby site) reports the installation of a lookout on June 1; conflicts with the 1934 build dateSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1954 and 1980
  6. 1980 RemovedRegister: tower removed in the spring of 1980Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1980 and 2020
  8. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 24, 2020Source: firetower.org
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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.

Billy's Peak is in Trinity County, California, on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register dates the lookout to 1934. It describes a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 20-foot H-brace steel tower.1

Other sources do not match that date or that height. A 1952 survey description of the site, quoted on a hobby site, says the lookout house stood on a 30-foot steel tower.2 A June 1954 item from the Dunsmuir News, also quoted there, says a trail had been opened that week in preparation for a lookout going in on June 1.2 The register's 1934 date and these 1952 and 1954 items do not agree, and no source we read explains the difference.

The register says the tower came down in spring 1980 and that nothing is left at the site.1

SummitPost describes a trail that climbs to the summit where the lookout once stood. It gains just under 3,000 feet in 3 miles from a tight switchback on a Forest Service road, and it enters the Trinity Alps Wilderness less than half a mile in.3 That same guide warns that the trail has gone without upkeep for some time.3 A second SummitPost page, on the peak itself, describes a maintained route to the summit, so the two pages disagree on the trail's condition.4 No source we read says whether the trail is closed.

  1. Billy's Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/billys-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Billy's Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/billys-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Billys Peak Trail, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/billys-peak-trail/668793 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Billys Peak Lookout, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/billys-peak-lookout/668731 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Billy's Peak Lookout - 1953
Billy's Peak Lookout - 1953 (1953)Photo: National Archives, 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 the location by 2.3 km (1.4 mi).

    • FFLOS: 41.12112, −122.74659
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 41.13292, −122.76919

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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: 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
  4. 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.