Fire lookout · Siskiyou County, California
Bolivar Lookout
Klamath NF lookout on Craggy Peak; a 1960 CL-100 cab replaced an earlier pre-1939 cab; land-title dates conflict; in use in 2021.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
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. Working fire-season station on Klamath National Forest land; no public visitor or rental listing found.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Two-story buildingCL-100 all-steel cab on a 9-foot block tower (1960); earlier cab a Region 5 BC-302 designThe designs: BC-301, CL-100
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1960
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 6,910 ft (2,106 m)
- Agency
- US Forest Service - Klamath National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Siskiyou County, California
- Coordinates
- 41.27237, −122.79567
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-bolivar
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 3.7 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
- 1921 StaffedEarliest record I found of a lookout on the peak: F. J. Friday on leave from the Boliver lookout, Sept 1921 (Siskiyou Daily News, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1921 and 1936
- 1936 EventShasta Forest accepted title to the 20-acre site (May 12, 1936); lookout had been built on leased Southern Pacific landSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1939 EventNHLR says Southern Pacific deeded the property to the Forest Service in 1939; conflicts with the 1936 title dateSource: nhlr.org
- 1951 EventAdministration of the lookout taken over by the Klamath National Forest from the Shasta National ForestSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1959 EventRoof blown off the original structure (diary entry Sept 18, 1959); a temporary tent took its placeSources: californialookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
- 1960 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
- 1960 Replaced by a new structureCL-100 all-steel cab on a 9-foot block tower replaced the previous structure; construction began late 1960; foundation forms carried up in October and floor slab poured in NovemberSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1960 and 2019
- 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered October 27, 2019 as NHLR US 1354, CA 177Source: nhlr.org
- 2021 StaffedKarita Knisely worked the tower May to October, four days a week, during the 2021 seasonSource: wtop.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Bolivar Lookout sits on Craggy Peak in the Klamath National Forest, in Siskiyou County.1 A lookout was already in use there by September 1921, when a local paper noted that F. J. Friday had a few days off from the Bolivar lookout.2 The earlier cab was a Region 5 BC-302 design, which the National Historic Lookout Register says was standing before 1939.1
The sources disagree about who owned the ground. The Register dates the handover from Southern Pacific Railroad to the Forest Service to 1939.1 The Forest Lookouts site instead says the Shasta Forest accepted title to a 20-acre site in May 1936, after the lookout had been built on leased Southern Pacific land.2 I could not reconcile these dates, so both are reported here.
The first cab did not last. In September 1959 the roof blew off, and a temporary tent took its place.2,1 According to the Register, an all-steel CL-100 cab on a 9-foot block tower took over from the old structure in 1960.1 Forest Service diaries quoted in a Klamath forest history describe hauling foundation forms up the peak in October 1960 and pouring the floor slab in November 1960.2
The Klamath National Forest took over the lookout from the Shasta National Forest in 1951.2 A 2012 photo page says the lookout is usually manned in fire season and that a good road from Callahan reaches it.3 In 2021 a news report featured Karita Knisely, who worked the one-room tower from May to October, four days a week, watching for smoke.4
The Register accepted the lookout in October 2019.1 The 2021 report shows it was still in use then, and I found no source saying it has been removed.4
I did not find a public rental or visitor program for Bolivar. Because it is a working station in fire season, check with the Klamath National Forest before planning any trip up the peak.
- Bolivar Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/bolivar-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Bolivar, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/bolivar.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Bolivar Lookout, California, Peakbagging (peakbagging.com), http://peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/Bolivar.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Fire lookouts keep watch over threatened forests, WTOP News, https://wtop.com/national/2021/08/fire-lookouts-keep-watch-over-threatened-forests/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1354 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Bolivar Lookout, California (Peakbagging (peakbagging.com)) (opens another site)
- Fire lookouts keep watch over threatened forests (WTOP News) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Bolivar on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 1202672139 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.