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Fire lookout · Mendocino County, California

Cold Spring Mountain Lookout

A 1965 CDF 809R cab on an enclosed 29 ft steel tower in Mendocino County; last staffed in 1990, now closed; a visitor's report says it is boarded up.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. NHLR describes the 1965 station as closed. A visitor's trip report on Bay Area Peaks describes the old lookout as securely boarded up. No source describes a visitor arrangement.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1990)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Enclosed towerCDF 809R cab on an enclosed 29 ft steel tower; post-1950 cabin design with angled windowsThe design: CDF 809R
Built of
Steel
Built
1965
Height
29 ft (8.8 m)
Elevation
2,645 ft (806 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry (NHLR lists it as administered by the CDF; Cal Fire nominated it)
Land
Unknown
Location
Mendocino County, California
Coordinates
39.02250, −123.52170
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-cold-spring-mountain

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 3.5 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. 1965 BuiltStation built; NHLR and Peakbagging.com both date it to 1965Sources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
  2. No record between 1965 and 1990
  3. 1990 Last staffedNHLR says it was last staffed in 1990; a Forest Lookouts note says budget cuts meant it would not be staffed that fire seasonSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 12, 2002, as US 397, CA 48; nominated by Cal FireSource: nhlr.org
  5. 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.

Cold Spring Mountain, in Mendocino County, carries a closed fire lookout east of Point Arena, with views over the Coast Range.1,2 The lookout has a CDF 809R cab on an enclosed 29-foot steel tower.2 The NHLR says the cabin follows a post-1950 design, with angled windows.2

The station was built in 1965 and is administered by the California Department of Forestry.2,3 Cal Fire nominated it, and the register listed it on January 12, 2002, as US 397, CA 48.2

The lookout was last staffed in 1990, according to the NHLR.2 A Forest Lookouts history page records a 1990 note that budget cuts would keep it unstaffed that fire season.4

The NHLR says the station is closed and describes its condition as good.2 A Peakbagging.com photo captioned as taken in 2006 says the lookout appears to be in good condition.3 A visitor's trip report on Bay Area Peaks says the old lookout is securely boarded up.1

The sources give different elevations. The NHLR lists 2,645 feet, while Peakbagging.com lists 2,739 feet.2,3 None of the sources read describes a notable fire spotted from this lookout, and none describes a public visiting arrangement, so treat the tower and cab as off limits.

  1. Cold Spring, Bay Area Peaks, https://www.bayareapeaks.com/mendocino/cold-spring-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cold Spring Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/cold-spring-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Cold Spring Mountain Lookout, California, Peakbagging.com, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/ColdSpringMtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Cold Spring Mountain, Forest Lookouts (California), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/cold-spring-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Cold Spring Mountain Lookout - 2006
Cold Spring Mountain Lookout - 2006 (2006)Photo: Fred Johnson www.peakbagging.com, 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, 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: 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, access, 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.