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Fire lookout · Siskiyou County, California

Black Fox Mountain Lookout

Siskiyou County lookout: a 1922 glass house, then a 1939 BC-301 cab in Shasta-Trinity NF; closed for maintenance in 2008, current status unclear.

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
Enclosed towerCalifornia Region 4 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 30-foot enclosed timber towerThe designs: BC-301, D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
Wood
Built
1922
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,516 ft (1,986 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Siskiyou County, California
Coordinates
41.34659, −121.89107
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-black-fox-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 3.4 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. 1922 BuiltGlass lookout house, 14 x 14 ft, on a 30 ft tower, per a July 1922 newspaper item quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1923 StaffedEd Sanderson stationed as lookoutSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1923 and 1939
  4. 1939 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1939 Replaced by a new structureCurrent BC-301 enclosed timber cab built, replacing a Region 5 Plan 4AR cab on an open steel tower; the Register gives 1939 as the built yearSource: nhlr.org
  6. 1943 StaffedTwo women stationed at the lookoutSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1954 StaffedA lookout reported her ninth season at the towerSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1954 and 2008
  9. 2008 ClosedClosed for maintenance; duties transferred to the Siskiyou Bear Lookout (Forest Lookouts only; not confirmed elsewhere)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  10. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 27, 2019 as US 1353, CA 176Source: 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.

Black Fox Mountain Lookout stands on Black Fox Mountain in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, in Siskiyou County, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1

A July 1922 newspaper item, quoted on the Forest Lookouts site, reports that a 14-by-14-foot glass house had just been finished on a thirty-foot tower on the peak, and that all of its materials had to be packed in on mules.2 Notices from 1923 and 1925 describe a thirty-foot steel tower, and newspapers named lookouts there from the 1920s into the 1950s, including Ed Sanderson in 1923 and George Dunlap in 1929.2

The cab on the mountain now is a later one. The Register says it was built in 1939 as a California Region 4 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 30-foot enclosed timber tower, replacing a Region 5 Plan 4AR cabin on an open steel tower.1 Neither account says whether the 4AR cab was the 1922 glass house, so these sources do not show whether they were the same structure.1,2

Women were stationed there in the 1940s and 1950s. A 1943 item names two of them, and a 1954 item describes one woman's ninth season as lookout.2 A 1961 item says a bullet cut the telephone line, and it calls the lookout station the only way to reach the forest area after hours.2

The Forest Lookouts page says the lookout was closed for maintenance in 2008 and its duties passed to a station it calls the Siskiyou Bear Lookout. We could not confirm that station anywhere else.2 The Register recorded the lookout on October 27, 2019.1 The sources read do not say whether it has reopened or what condition it is in.1,2

Current access is not settled by any source we read. Check with the Shasta-Trinity National Forest before planning a trip, and do not climb the tower.

  1. Black Fox Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/black-fox-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Black Fox Mountain, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/black-fox-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Black Fox Mountain Lookout - 2010
Black Fox Mountain Lookout - 2010 (2010)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2008
2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2002
2002 (2002)Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Black Fox Mountain Lookout
Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
California Plan 4AR Cabin - 1931
California Plan 4AR Cabin - 1931 (1931)Photo: US Forest Service, 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, ownership, 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 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, 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.