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Fire lookout · Tehama County, California

Campbellville Lookout Site

Tehama County, CA lookout site used since at least 1922; state cabin built 1937 was gone by 1986; parcel listed for possible sale in 2014. No current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the lookout structure was gone by 1986; no source describes what remains today

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
Cab on a tower8x8 foot wood-frame observation cabin on a 60-foot treated timber tower (1937), with a BC-201 residence cabinThe design: BC-201
Built of
Wood
Built
1937
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
4,022 ft (1,226 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Land
Unknown
Location
Tehama County, California
Coordinates
40.03512, −121.71871
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-campbellville

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 its recorded height.

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 FireBrush fire in the Polk Springs district; the man who admitted starting it pleaded guilty and was fined $50; about 800 acres burned Plea dated May 3, 1922.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1922 First staffedEarliest documented use. Register says a lookout has been here since at least 1922; a 1922 newspaper report has a ranger sighting a fire from the stationSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1922 and 1937
  4. 1937 BuiltRegister: State of California built a new 8x8 foot observation cabin on a 60 foot treated timber tower, plus a BC-201 residence cabinSource: firetower.org
  5. No record between 1937 and 1971
  6. 1971 Event2011 Assembly analysis: CAL FIRE acquired the property in 1971 to construct a fire lookout tower. Conflicts with the register's 1937 state build dateSource: leginfo.ca.gov
  7. No record between 1971 and 1986
  8. 1986 RemovedRegister Removed field reads 'Pre 1986'; description says the structure was gone by 1986. Year is an upper boundSource: firetower.org
  9. No record between 1986 and 2011
  10. 2011 EventAB 1272 (enrolled) would authorize the director to dispose of the parcel, described as about 5 acres; April 2011 analysis says about 20 acresSources: leginfo.ca.gov, leginfo.ca.gov
  11. 2014 EventApril 25, 2014: site and five acres of forest land listed on a DGS excess-properties-under-review list for possible saleSources: californialookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  12. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: December 12, 2020Source: FFLOS register entry
  13. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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.

The Campbellville site sits in Tehama County, California.1 The register says a lookout has operated here since at least 1922, first for the Lassen National Forest.1 It is about 20 miles north of Chico.2

The state built a newer structure in 1937: an eight-by-eight-foot wood-frame observation cabin on a 60-foot treated timber tower, with a BC-201 residence cabin.1 A 2011 Assembly analysis gives a different timeline, saying CAL FIRE acquired the property in 1971 to build a lookout.3 The two accounts do not agree.

The earliest staffing we found is from April 1922, when a Red Bluff Daily News report, quoted on a lookout history page, says Ranger W.L. Slater sighted a blaze from the Campbellville station.4 The man who admitted starting that fire, W.A. Stall, pleaded guilty in May 1922 to setting brush alight and was fined $50.4 The blaze covered roughly 800 acres before it was brought under control.4

The register says the structure was gone by 1986, though it gives no exact removal year.1 In 2011, AB 1272 would authorize the state to dispose of the parcel.2 Its enrolled text calls the parcel about five acres, while the April committee analysis said about 20.2,3 The analysis also says CAL FIRE had no planned future use for the land.3 In April 2014, the site and about five acres of forest land appeared on a state list of excess properties under review, flagged for possible sale.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today.

  1. Campbellville Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/campbellville-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. AB 1272, State property: surplus, enrolled bill text, California Legislative Information, https://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_1251-1300/ab_1272_bill_20110713_enrolled.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. AB 1272, Assembly Committee analysis, April 11, 2011, California Legislative Information, https://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_1251-1300/ab_1272_cfa_20110411_113553_asm_comm.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Campellville - Forest Lookouts, californialookouts.weebly.com, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/campellville.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Campbellville Lookout - 1938
Campbellville Lookout - 1938 (1938)Photo: Meriam Library. California State University, Chico, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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, height, 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.