FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Madera County, California

Goat Mountain Lookout

1934 L-4 cab on a 20-foot steel tower above Bass Lake, now a Forest Service radio relay site; sources conflict on the pre-1934 history.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower14 by 14 foot L-4 cab with catwalk on a 20 foot H-braced steel tower; base replaced with a Pacific Coast Steel tower after 1935The designs: L-4, Pacific Coast Steel
Built of
Steel
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,634 ft (1,412 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Madera County, California
Coordinates
37.27199, −119.55002
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-goat-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. 1916 DestroyedA cabin dated 1915 blew down in winter 1915-16 (fire-lookouts.org)Source: fire-lookouts.org
  2. No record between 1916 and 1934
  3. 1934 BuiltRegister build year; fire-lookouts.org calls 1934 a reconstruction after a gap in the recordSources: nhlr.org, fire-lookouts.org
  4. 1935 RebuiltFall 1935 winds shifted the tower on its base; rebuilt on a Pacific Coast Steel base, apparently reusing the same cabSource: fire-lookouts.org
  5. 1949 StaffedBert Ibbotson named as Forest Service lookout; August 19, 1949 report quoted from the Madera TribuneSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1949 and 1999
  7. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 21, 1999 with the National Historic Lookout RegisterSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Goat Mountain Lookout stands above Bass Lake in Madera County, on the Sierra National Forest.1 The register dates the lookout to 1934, when a 14-by-14-foot L-4 cab was set on a 20-foot steel tower.1 Another history page says the peak was already a lookout before 1915, when a cabin there blew down in the winter of 1915 to 1916, and that no use is recorded again until the 1934 rebuild.2

Those two accounts disagree on what 1934 means. The register treats it as the build year, while the other page calls it a reconstruction.1,2 In the fall of 1935 winds shifted the tower on its base, and the lookout was rebuilt on a Pacific Coast Steel base, apparently reusing the same cab.2

A 1949 item quoted on a California lookouts page, which credits the Madera Tribune, names Bert Ibbotson as the Forest Service lookout that summer. A report dated August 19 counted 250 visitors so far that summer.3

The register says the tower is no longer used for fire detection and is maintained as a radio relay site.1 The other page says the Forest Service still keeps it for that purpose.2

The register also holds two visitor reports, from 2005 and 2007. The 2007 report says the lookout "has fallen over," but it places the lookout in the Mendocino National Forest, so it seems to describe a different peak. This story does not rely on it.1

We found no source that says whether the public can reach or climb the tower today. Anyone planning a visit should check with the Bass Lake Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest first, and should not climb a tower that is closed or private.2

  1. Goat Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/goat-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Goat Mountain Fire Lookout, fire-lookouts.org, https://www.fire-lookouts.org/cali/goat_mtn/index.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Goat Mountain - Forest Lookouts, californialookouts.weebly.com, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/goat-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Goat Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Goat Mtn Fire Lookout
Goat Mtn 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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, register numbers, photos, links 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. 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, 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.