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Fire lookout · Los Angeles County, California

Grass Mountain Lookout Site

Cooperative Angeles NF lookout built 1934, named staff 1938-1951, destroyed in the August 1951 Munz Lake fire and not rebuilt; few concrete blocks remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in a wildfire in August 1951 and not rebuilt. Only a few concrete blocks and a weather station remain on the summit.

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 towerCalifornia Region revision of the USFS L-4 cabin on a 10 ft open timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,611 ft (1,405 m)
Agency
Angeles National Forest (USFS), in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Forestry Department
Land
Federal land
Location
Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates
34.64101, −118.41318
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-grass-mountain

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 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. 1934 BuiltCooperative lookout between the Forest Service and the Los Angeles County Forestry DepartmentSource: firetower.org
  2. 1938 StaffedGeorge Ealy listed as lookout staffSource: angelesadventures.com
  3. 1940 StaffedHerbert Gage listed as lookout staffSource: angelesadventures.com
  4. 1941 StaffedGeorge W. Wilson listed as lookout staffSource: angelesadventures.com
  5. 1951 DestroyedLost in the Munz Lake fire near Lake Hughes, August 1951Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com, angelesadventures.com
  6. 1951 RemovedRegister gives 1951 as the removal year; not rebuiltSource: firetower.org
  7. 1951 StaffedHerbert Walstead listed as lookout staffSource: angelesadventures.com
  8. No record between 1951 and 2019
  9. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 3, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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.

Grass Mountain, a high point of the Sierra Pelona range, lies within the Angeles National Forest.1 A lookout went up there in 1934 as a cooperative project of the Forest Service and the Los Angeles County Forestry Department.2 It was a California Region revision of the L-4 cabin, set on a 10-foot open timber tower.2

Records name four lookouts between 1938 and 1951: George Ealy (1938), Herbert Gage (1940), George W. Wilson (1941) and Herbert Walstead (1951).1

The lookout's end came in a wildfire. The register's photo caption ties its destruction to the Munz Lake fire of August 27, 1951.2 A newspaper report from that day says the fire was thought to have been caused by a discarded cigarette, and that a U.S. Forestry Service lookout atop Grass Mountain went up in flames.3

Reports differ on the fire's size. The August 27 report put the burn at more than 8,000 acres. A Signal report of August 30, quoted by Angeles Adventures, gave 9,000 acres for the fire that razed the tower.3,1

The lookout was not rebuilt.2

Today the summit holds only a few concrete blocks, plus a remote weather station that the county fire department placed there.1

  1. Grass Mountain Lookout, Angeles Adventures, https://angelesadventures.com/grass-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Grass Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/grass-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Grass Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/grass-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Grass Mountain Lookout
Grass Mountain LookoutPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1941 Los Angeles Times feature
1941 Los Angeles Times feature (1941)Photo: Los Angeles Times, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Grass Mountain road construction - 1933
Grass Mountain road construction - 1933 (1933)Photo: National Archives, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Grass Mountain Lookout Destroyed - Munz Lake Fire, August 27, 1951 - "Angelus" National Forest near Lake Hughes
Grass Mountain Lookout Destroyed - Munz Lake Fire, August 27, 1951 - "Angelus" National Forest near Lake Hughes (1951)Photo: USC Digital Library; Photographer: Lapp. Date: 08-27-51, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Grass Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: USC Digital Library; Photographer: Lapp. Date: 08-27-51, 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.

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, 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.