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Fire lookout · San Bernardino County, California

Butler Peak Lookout

Forest Service 14x14 ground cab on Butler Peak above Big Bear Lake, built 1935; volunteer-staffed in season; reopened 2022 after storm-damage closure.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. open to visitors on a seasonal schedule, Memorial Day to November; dirt access road; high clearance recommended; snow can persist into July

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
drive up dirt Forest Roads 3N14, 2N13 and 2N13C from Highway 38 at Fawnskin; climb the stairs to the catwalk when the tower is staffed
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabRegion 5 Plan BC-301 14 x 14 ft wooden ground house with catwalk, set on a blasted rock outcropThe design: BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,419 ft (2,566 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
San Bernardino County, California
Coordinates
34.25655, −117.00766
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-butler-peak

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. 1935 BuiltRegister Built field gives 1935; October 1935 newspaper report says construction was ending; March 1936 report says completed early that winterSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 StaffedJune 1938 newspaper report: lookout open with Forest Lookout Walter Fieg in chargeSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1970
  4. 1970 Firelookout staffer Eileen McMahon spotted the Bear Fire, which destroyed 49 homes and burned 53,000 acresSource: mountainsfoundation.org
  5. 1970 EventLookout staffer Eileen McMahon spotted the Bear Fire, which burned 49 homes and 53,000 acres.Source: mountainsfoundation.org
  6. 1981 StaffedBruce D. Risher served as the last paid lookout operatorSource: nhlr.org
  7. 1986 Restoredtower taken out of service, then reopened with volunteer staffingSource: nhlr.org
  8. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered January 6, 1999Source: nhlr.org
  9. No record between 1999 and 2022
  10. 2022 Restoredstaffed again by Southern California Mountain Foundation volunteers as of August 2022, after a three-year closure caused by storm damage to the access roadSource: 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.

Butler Peak Lookout overlooks Big Bear Lake from a rock outcrop in the San Bernardino National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The peak is named for George E. Butler, a local politician and Bear Valley property owner.2

Local papers followed its construction in 1934 and 1935. A March 1934 report said workers from the City Creek camp would build lookouts on Butler and Morton peaks.3 A February 1935 report said a forest crew would begin building the lookout on top of the peak, and an October 1935 report said construction was ending.3 The cab is a standard 14-by-14-foot wooden house set on a rock that was blasted flat. Because of the peak's elevation, no tower was needed.1,3 A telephone line and a three-mile road connected the station to the Green Valley-Fawnskin truck trail.3

The sources disagree on the start date. The Register gives 1935 as the build year, but its description says the CCC built it in 1933. This story uses 1935, which the Register's build field and the newspaper reports support.1,3 The sources also give three elevations: 8,419 feet in the Register, 8,502 feet in the 1935 report, and 8,535 feet on the Foundation's page.1,3,2

The earliest staffing in these sources is a June 1938 report that the lookout had opened with Forest Lookout Walter Fieg in charge.3 Through the 1950s, The Grizzly named the lookouts season by season, often married couples, and by mid-August 1952 it had counted the 465th visitor of that year.3

In 1970, lookout staff member Eileen McMahon spotted the Bear Fire, which destroyed 49 homes and burned 53,000 acres.2

Bruce D. Risher was the last paid lookout operator, in 1981.1 The tower then went out of service, and volunteers took over its staffing when it reopened in 1986.1 Storm damage to the access road led to a three-year closure, and Southern California Mountain Foundation volunteers were staffing the lookout again as of August 2022.1

The Foundation says visitors can go up from Memorial Day to November, and that the lookout was open for the 2025 season.2 The Register lists normal hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, in a season from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, sometimes longer.1 The Foundation warns that the dirt road and trail have had up to five feet of snow as late as July 4, and it recommends a high-clearance vehicle.2 The directions run from Highway 38 on the north shore of Big Bear Lake to Fawnskin, then along Forest Roads 3N14, 2N13 and 2N13C.2 The Register says the lookout will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2026.1 The sources do not say whether the 2026 season is set, so check with the Foundation before you go.

  1. Butler Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/butler-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Our Seven Lookouts, Southern California Mountains Foundation, https://mountainsfoundation.org/programs/fire-lookouts/fl-seven-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Butler Peak, Forest Lookouts California (californialookouts.weebly.com), quoting The San Bernardino County Sun and The Grizzly, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/butler-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

1981
1981 (1981)Photo: Bruce D. Risher, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2009
2009 (2009)Photo: Brad Eells, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Butler Peak Lookout
Photo: Brad Eells, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Osborne Fire-Finder
Osborne Fire-FinderPhoto: Brad Eells, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Butler Peak Lookout
Photo: Brad Eells, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
October 31, 1935
October 31, 1935 (1935)Photo: San Bernardino Sun, 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. Southern California Mountains Foundation Gave us: dates, links Southern California Mountains Foundation (mountainsfoundation.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, what happened). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the foundation's page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR records. · retrieved 8 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. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages Gave us: register numbers, links FFLA chapters and Friends groups (each link names the group) · Links to the groups' own pages; facts only from the California-South chapter's tower table (register page, operator, condition). No text or photos reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.