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Fire lookout · San Diego County, California

Cuyamaca Peak Tower Site

Cuyamaca Peak lookout: 1918 timber tower, 1930s 30-ft steel K-brace tower, Forest Service use to 1975, demolished and burned in 1985.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Demolished and burned in 1985 according to the register; the Descanso history says the lookout no longer exists

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. The summit lies inside Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and a popular hike reaches it; no source describes what remains on the summit

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A popular year-round hike of about 3.5 miles runs from Paso Picacho Campground to the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot steel K-brace tower (L-1600 series) with a 14-by-14-foot Region 5 live-in wood cabThe designs: L-1600 steel tower, BC-301, C-3
Built of
Wood
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,512 ft (1,985 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Cleveland National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
San Diego County, California
Coordinates
32.94667, −116.60671
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-cuyamaca-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 2.8 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. 1918 BuiltFirst tower: a 10-foot enclosed timber tower with a 14-by-14-foot live-in cabSources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  2. 1930 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  3. 1930 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 30-foot steel K-brace tower. The register's Built field reads 'Circa 1930's', so the year is approximateSources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  4. 1933 EventPeak incorporated into Cuyamaca Rancho State ParkSources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  5. 1939 FireA second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve was killed when his plane crashed and set a brush patch on fire (August 1939); a forest lookout on the peak located the wreckSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 StaffedLookout C.A. Brown trapped in his station for hours by a 74-mile-an-hour gale that held his outward-opening door shut (October 1939)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1944 StaffedLookouts Roy Pogue and Art Towne snowbound on the peak until a ski patrol relief party reached them (March 1944)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1944 and 1975
  9. 1975 Last staffedRegister: the Cleveland National Forest operated the lookout through 1975; chapter says well into the 1970sSources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  10. 1985 RemovedRegister: demolished and burned. Chapter: burned in a wildfire or demolished by the mid-1980sSources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  11. No record between 1985 and 2009
  12. 2009 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 17, 2009; nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  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.

Cuyamaca Peak rises to 6,512 feet in San Diego County, and a fire lookout stood on its summit from 1918 until 1985.1,2 The first tower was a 10-foot timber tower with an enclosed cab, put up that year.1,2

In the 1930s it was replaced by a 30-foot steel K-brace tower with a 14-by-14-foot live-in cab.1,2 The register and the San Diego chapter give different design codes for that cab, BC-301 and C3.1,2 The register's Built field gives only a rough circa-1930s date for the steel tower, so the exact year is unclear.1

The peak became part of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in 1933.1,2 According to the register, the Cleveland National Forest ran the lookout through 1975, and the San Diego chapter says operation continued deep into the 1970s.1,2

Old newspaper items reprinted on a lookout history site give a few glimpses of the people who worked here.3 In August 1939 a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve was killed when his plane crashed and set a brush patch on fire, and a forest lookout on the peak located the wreck.3 In October 1939 a lookout named C.A. Brown was trapped in his station for hours, because his door opened outward and a 74-mile-an-hour gale held it shut.3 In March 1944 two lookouts, Roy Pogue and Art Towne, were snowbound on the peak until a ski patrol relief party reached them.3

The register says the tower was torn down and burned in 1985.1 The San Diego chapter is less specific: it puts the loss either in a wildfire or in a demolition by the mid-1980s, so the cause is unresolved.2

A Friends of the Descanso Library history of the lookouts says the Cuyamaca lookout no longer exists.4 Wikipedia describes a hike of about 3.5 miles, popular all year, that starts at Paso Picacho Campground and ends at the summit, which lies inside Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.5 None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.

  1. Cuyamaca Peak Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/cuyamaca-peak-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cuyamaca Peak, FFLA-SDRC, https://www.ffla-sandiego.org/fire-lookout/southern-california-towers/cuyamaca-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cuyamaca Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/cuyamaca-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lookout Towers, Friends of the Descanso Library, http://www.friendsofthedescansolibrary.org/history/Lookout_Towers.php (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Cuyamaca Peak, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyamaca_Peak (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cuyamaca Peak Tower Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Garage (1960s)
Garage (1960s)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Guard (circa 1920)
Guard (circa 1920) (1920)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Circa 1970
Circa 1970 (1970)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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 year it was built.

    • FFLOS: 1930
    • FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter: 1918

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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. FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter Gave us: design, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, San Diego-Riverside Chapter (ffla-sandiego.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, designs, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the chapter's page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages 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, height, 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.