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Fire lookout · Sierra County, California

Crystal Peak Lookout Site

Tahoe NF cabin on a 20-foot steel tower in Sierra County, built 1933; 1938-40 lookout staffing and a smoke mystery; listed as gone, no site report found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone by the Forest Fire Lookout Association; the FFLOS register gives no removal date

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 towerRegion 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 20-foot X-brace open steel towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1933
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
8,090 ft (2,466 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Tahoe National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Sierra County, California
Coordinates
39.55795, −120.08868 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-crystal-peak

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 3.2 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. 1933 BuiltBuilt 1933 per the FFLOS registerSource: firetower.org
  2. 1938 FireSeptember 1938: fire sighted by lookouts at Crystal Peak and Martis Peak; rangers could not find its sourceSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1938 StaffedLookouts at Crystal Peak and Martis Peak were watching in September 1938Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 EventNovember 1939: Crystal Peak road closed to public use, from the old Dog Valley road to the lookoutSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1940 EventCrystal Peak road closed to public use for October 31, 1940 to June 1, 1941Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1940 StaffedOctober 1940 report: L. E. Walker had been employed as lookout at Crystal PeakSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1940 and 2020
  8. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 15, 2020 as US 2006, CA 126; nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  9. 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.

Crystal Peak is in Sierra County, on the Tahoe National Forest.1 The site stands at 8,090 feet (2,466 m).1 The register describes a Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a steel tower 20 feet high, with open X-bracing, and gives 1933 as the build year.1

In September 1938, a Nevada State Journal item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page said lookouts at Crystal Peak and Martis Peak had sighted a fire.2 Rangers searched for several days and could not find it.2 The source of the smoke stayed a mystery.2 A forest supervisor suggested that a lightning-struck tree might be giving off an occasional puff of smoke.2

In 1940 the same paper reported that L. E. Walker had been employed as lookout at Crystal Peak, and that he and his wife had returned to Folsom for the winter.2

Forest officials also closed the Crystal Peak road to public use.2 A November 1939 announcement covered the road from the old Dog Valley road to the lookout, and a later order ran from October 31, 1940 to June 1, 1941.2

The register gives no removal date.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's California list marks Crystal Peak as gone.3 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to the public now, so check with the Tahoe National Forest before you go.

  1. Crystal Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/crystal-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Crystal Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/crystal-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. California Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

1941
1941 (1941)Photo: National Archives, 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 4.8 km (3.0 mi).

    • FFLOS: 39.55795, −120.08868
    • FFLA: 39.59928, −120.07070

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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, 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.