FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Nevada County, California

Camel's Hump Lookout Site

Nevada County lookout built 1938 or circa 1939 on the Tahoe NF; a 1950 newspaper has it staffed; listed as gone, with ruins described by the register.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone; the register gives no removal date and says some ruins remain 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.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 on an 8-foot enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,548 ft (1,081 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Tahoe National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Nevada County, California
Coordinates
39.21636, −120.85122
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-camels-hump

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.3 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. 1938 BuiltRegister description says constructed in 1938; its Built field says circa 1939Source: firetower.org
  2. 1939 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  3. 1950 StaffedDave Medford stationed at the lookout for the Forest Service (Nevada State Journal, October 1950)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1950 and 2020
  5. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: April 1, 2020Source: FFLOS register entry
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Camel's Hump is a former lookout site in Nevada County, on the Tahoe National Forest, at 3,548 feet.1

The register's description dates construction to 1938 and gives the design as California Region 5 Plan BC-301, on an eight-foot enclosed timber tower.1 Its build-date field says circa 1939, so the two entries differ by a year.1

In October 1950 the Nevada State Journal reported that Dave Medford was posted at the lookout for the U.S. Forest Service.2

The register gives no removal date, but says some ruins remain at the site.1 A photograph on that page, captioned 1963, shows the lookout and is credited to the Forest Service.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the lookout as gone.3

No source we read describes those ruins in their current state, or says whether the site is open to visitors.1

  1. Camel's Hump Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/camels-hump-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Camel's Hump - FOREST LOOKOUTS (newspaper excerpts), Forest Lookouts California pages, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/camels-hump.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. California Lookouts by county, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ca-co/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Camel's Hump Lookout - 1963
Camel's Hump Lookout - 1963 (1963)Photo: US Forest Service, 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.

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) 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, status, 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.