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Fire lookout · Calavares County, California

Folsom Lookout Site

Calaveras County, CA cabin on a 30-ft enclosed timber tower, built 1934 on Stanislaus NF; FFA lists it gone; register says nothing remains at the site and gives no removal date.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FFA California list marks it Gone; register gives the removal date as unknown and says nothing remains at the site

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
Enclosed towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 30-foot enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,990 ft (1,521 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Stanislaus National Forest; the register lists the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as a cooperator
Land
Federal land
Location
Calavares County, California
Coordinates
38.43671, −120.35446
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-folsom

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1934 BuiltBuilt 1934 per the register; cabin on a 30-foot enclosed timber towerSource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 2019
  3. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 29, 2019; nominated by Brad Eells; US 1880, CA 75Source: firetower.org
  4. 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.

Folsom Lookout's cabin sat atop a 30-foot enclosed timber tower, in Calaveras County, California, within the Stanislaus National Forest.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes the cabin as a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 design.1

The register dates the build to 1934.1 It gives the site's elevation as 4,990 feet, or 1,521 meters, but the same page also gives 4,855 feet for the Calaveras Ranger District.1 We did not reconcile the two figures.1

The register says the lookout was most likely a joint effort with the State of California.1 The photo captions in the register do not all agree with its build date.1 One image is captioned 1920, which is earlier than the 1934 build date, and a second is captioned 1937.1

The register added the site on December 29, 2019, with Brad Eells as nominator, under the numbers US 1880, CA 75.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the enclosed tower as gone.3 The register leaves the removal date unknown and says nothing is left at the site.1

No source we read says whether the site can be visited.1 The register names the Stanislaus National Forest as administrator, so ask there before planning any trip.1

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

Photos

Folsom Lookout - 1937
Folsom Lookout - 1937 (1937)Photo: Stanislaus National Forest Archive, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1920
1920 (1920)Photo: Stanislaus National Forest Archive, 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, 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) 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.