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Fire lookout · Madera County, California

Deadwood Peak Lookout

Madera County lookout on Potter Ridge: a 1905 wood cabin, a CCC-era tower dated 1934 or 1932 by sources, retired after 1994 and not open to the public today.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. About 4.5 miles from the paved road, behind locked gates; the register says it is not readily accessible to the public. Microwave dishes and radio vaults and towers are at the site.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Behind locked gates about 4.5 miles from the paved road; not open to visitors.
Staffing
Staffed by volunteers

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot H-beam steel tower with a C-3(L) cab installed in 1952; the 1932 tower carried an L-4 or 4AR cabThe designs: L-4, D-5 (4-AR), C-3
Built of
Not recorded
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
4,547 ft (1,386 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (now CAL FIRE); the register ties the lookout to the Sierra National Forest
Land
State land
Location
Madera County, California
Coordinates
37.31355, −119.68594
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-deadwood-peak

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 3.1 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. 1905 BuiltOriginal lookout on the site, a wood cabin design.Source: fire-lookouts.org
  2. 1909 First staffedStaffed through the 1909 season; described as the first continually staffed lookout in the Sierra National Forest.Source: fire-lookouts.org
  3. No record between 1909 and 1932
  4. 1932 Replaced by a new structureReplaced with a 20-foot H-beam steel tower carrying an L-4 or 4AR cab. Conflicts with the register's 1934 build date.Source: fire-lookouts.org
  5. 1934 BuiltRegister says the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the tower and cab for the Sierra National Forest.Source: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1934 and 1950
  7. 1950 EventCDF took over the site.Source: nhlr.org
  8. 1952 AlteredUtility room (Cook's Quarters) added below the cab by CDF; cab replaced with the current C-3(L) cab.Sources: nhlr.org, fire-lookouts.org
  9. No record between 1952 and 1968
  10. 1968 EventJune 1968 break-in reported in the Madera Tribune; walkie-talkie, binoculars, blankets and gasoline taken.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1968 and 1994
  12. 1994 Last staffedRetired from active service after the end of the 1994 fire season.Source: fire-lookouts.org
  13. 2008 EventLast photo seen by the fire-lookouts.org author, showing the tower in extreme disrepair.Source: fire-lookouts.org
  14. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered per NHLR detail page: December 23, 2019Source: NHLR register entry
  15. 2025 EventCAL FIRE budget request (fiscal year 2025-26) for $587,000 of preliminary plans for the joint Penon Blanco and Deadwood Peak repair project; total estimated project cost $11,434,000.Source: bcp.dof.ca.gov
  16. 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.

Deadwood Peak sits at the top of Potter Ridge, southwest of Oakhurst in Madera County.1 The first tower on the site went up in 1905 as a wood cabin.2 The tower people see today is a later one.2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the Civilian Conservation Corps built the tower and cab for the Sierra National Forest, and it dates the work to 1934, with a 1952 addition.1 Another account says a 20-foot steel tower replaced the earlier structure in 1932, carrying an L-4 or 4AR cab, and that the current C-3(L) cab went on in 1952.2 The two accounts disagree on the build year.1,2

Staffing began early.2 One history says the lookout was manned through the 1909 season and was the Sierra National Forest's first lookout to be staffed without a break.2 The state forestry agency, since renamed CAL FIRE, took over the site in 1950 and added a utility room below the cab in 1952.1,2 Paid and volunteer lookouts kept watch from the tower until it was retired after the 1994 fire season.2

Since then the tower has had a hard road. A June 1968 item from the Madera Tribune, quoted on a lookout history site, reported a break-in and the loss of a walkie-talkie, binoculars, blankets and gasoline.3 A lookout history write-up says the most recent photo its author saw, from 2008, showed the tower in extreme disrepair.2 In a state budget request for fiscal year 2025–26, CAL FIRE asked for $587,000 to begin preliminary plans for repairing the structure, as part of a project shared with Penon Blanco Lookout, with total estimated costs of $11,434,000.4

Today the site is not readily open to the public.1 The register says it lies about 4.5 miles from the paved road, behind locked gates, and that microwave dishes and radio vaults and towers are at the site.1 One write-up places the tower on leased private land outside the forest boundary, while the register ties it to the Sierra National Forest.1,2 The state request covers only the preliminary plans phase.4

  1. Deadwood Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/deadwood-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Deadwood Mountain Fire Lookout, fire-lookouts.org, https://www.fire-lookouts.org/cali/deadwood_peak/index.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Deadwood Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/deadwood-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Penon Blanco & Deadwood Peak Lookout: Repair Facilities, California Department of Finance budget change proposal, https://bcp.dof.ca.gov/2526/FY2526_ORG3540_BCP8434.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Deadwood Peak Lookout
Deadwood Peak LookoutPhoto: Steve Maurer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Deadwood Peak Lookout
Photo: Steve Maurer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2010
2010 (2010)Photo: Richard Carey - www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1912
1912 (1912)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Deadwood Pk Fire Lookout
Deadwood Pk Fire LookoutPhoto: fire-lookouts.org (Rich Camp) · Reuse allowed with credit · 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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1934
    • California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org): 1905

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

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org) Gave us: design, ownership, staffing, photos fire-lookouts.org · Public information per the site's disclaimer, credit requested. Facts + a short description reused under that permission -- see extra.license per record. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  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.