FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Siskiyou County, California

Blue Ridge Lookout

1934 steel lookout tower on Blue Ridge, Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County; NHLR-registered 1995; 2020 Register visit found it unstaffed and in poor condition.

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. OpenStreetMap tags the structure access=private.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Road-trip guide: the summit road is unpaved and needs a 4x4; the 2020 Register visit found no sign and no signed directions to the tower
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2020)

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor steel tower with 7 by 7 foot cab per the Register; a 1952 survey describes a four-legged steel tower with a 10 foot square metal house on topThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Built
1934
Height
110 ft (33.5 m)
Elevation
5,917 ft (1,804 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Siskiyou County, California
Coordinates
41.27233, −123.18800
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-blue-ridge

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 3.2 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. 1910 EventJuly 1910: telephone line being built to the Blue Ridge station, where a guard was to act as lookout; a tower came laterSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1910 and 1934
  3. 1934 BuiltRegister and road guide give 1934; a May 2, 1934 diary entry describes scouting an old sled road to see whether trucks could be used to haul steel for the towerSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com, dangerousroads.org
  4. 1935 First staffedJuly 1935 inspection found the station operating in fine condition, with its emergency telephone wire still being hooked upSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1936 StaffedLookout resigned in August 1936 and was replaced by another manSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1943 StaffedTwo women went on duty at the Forest Service lookout station in June 1943Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1943 and 1995
  8. 1995 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 8, 1995 as US 114, CA 5Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2004 Condition assessmentRegister visit September 4, 2004: needs paint; no staff; no sign or signed directionsSource: nhlr.org
  10. No record between 2004 and 2020
  11. 2020 Condition assessmentRegister visit October 21, 2020: needs paint; wood, stairs and glass not in good order; no staff; no sign or signed directionsSource: nhlr.org
  12. 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.

Blue Ridge Lookout stands on the highest part of Blue Ridge in the Klamath National Forest, in Siskiyou County, California, at about 1,800 meters.1,2 A lookout site on the ridge goes back to at least 1910, when a telephone line was being built to a station where a guard was to act as lookout.2 The steel tower came later.2 A May 1934 diary entry describes scouting an old sled road to see whether trucks could use it to haul steel for the tower, and the Register gives 1934 as the build year.2,1 A road-trip guide repeats 1934.3

The sources disagree on the design. The Register describes one of three 80-foot Aermotor towers with 7-by-7-foot cabs in the state.1 A 1952 survey description instead gives a 110-foot, four-legged steel tower topped by a 10-foot square metal house.2

The sources read name no specific fire the tower watched. A July 1935 inspection found the station in fine condition, with its emergency telephone wire still being hooked up.2 In June 1943 two women went on duty at the station.2 The Register also links the site to aircraft warning work during the Second World War.1

The Register accepted the tower on March 8, 1995, as US 114, CA 5.1 Its visit reports from September 2004 and October 2020 both note that the tower needed paint, that no staff were present, and that neither the sign nor directions to the tower were in place.1 The 2020 report also marks the wood, stairs and glass as not in good order.1 The Register's own description still says the lookout is staffed each year, so the two accounts do not agree on current staffing.1

Today, the road-trip guide says the summit road is unpaved and needs a four-wheel-drive vehicle.3 The sources read do not say whether visitors may climb the tower. Anyone planning a trip should check with the Klamath National Forest first.

  1. Blue Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/blue-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Blue Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/blue-ridge2.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Road trip guide: Conquering Blue Ridge in Siskiyou County, dangerousroads.org, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/11757-road-trip-guide-conquering-blue-ridge-in-siskiyou-county.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Blue Ridge Lookout - 2008
Blue Ridge Lookout - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
BC-201 Fireman Lookout Cabin - 2008
BC-201 Fireman Lookout Cabin - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Blue Ridge Lookout
Photo: Siskiyou County Historical Society Collection, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Blue Ridge Lookout
Photo: 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.

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
    • NHLR: Standing
    • OpenStreetMap: Ruins

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, wartime use, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: what it is built of, height, access, 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, height, status, agency, staffing, 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.