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Fire lookout · Shasta County, California

Hat Creek Rim Lookout Site

Lassen National Forest steel lookout in Shasta County, built 1934; its cab was destroyed in a 1987 backfire and never rebuilt, but the steel tower remains.

Standing: The tower still stands, but its cab is gone (FFLA).

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 sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 30-foot K-brace open steel towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1934
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,126 ft (1,562 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Lassen National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shasta County, California
Coordinates
40.80860, −121.41485
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-hat-creek-rim

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 3.2 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 BuiltRegister: constructed for the Lassen National Forest in 1934Source: firetower.org
  2. 1938 StaffedRelief guard Woodrow McCowan, with a permanent lookout due to take over on 10 June; Stanley Billings named as rim lookout in September. The item does not name this tower.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1987
  4. 1987 DestroyedCabin destroyed in a Forest Service backfire that escaped in high winds; not rebuiltSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1987 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "1987 Uncontrolled Backfire".Source: FFLOS register entry
  6. No record between 1987 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: April 12, 2020Source: FFLOS register entry
  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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Hat Creek Rim lookout site is in Shasta County, California, in the Lassen National Forest, at about 5,126 feet (1,562 meters).1 The register says the site was built for the Lassen forest in 1934. Its cabin was a Region 5 Plan BC-301 design, set on a 30-foot steel K-brace tower.1

The first staffing we can date comes from a newspaper. A 1938 item from The Searchlight, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, mentions a relief guard, Woodrow McCowan, covering the rim east of the Hat Creek ranger station until a permanent lookout was due to take over on 10 June.2 In late September that year the same paper named Stanley Billings as the rim lookout.2 The item does not name this tower, so the link is likely but not certain.2

The cabin's end came in 1987. The Lassen County Times, also quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, reported a blaze of about 3,000 acres on Hat Creek that September. Forest Service backfires escaped in high winds, and the fire grew.2 The paper listed the Hat Creek Lookout Station among two structures lost.2 The item does not say that was this cabin, though the register's 1987 date fits.1 The register says the cabin was destroyed in a backfiring effort that year and was never rebuilt.1

Today the steel tower remains, according to the register.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's California list also marks the tower Standing*. Its key defines that asterisk as a tower whose structure and support remain while the cab is no longer in place.3 We found no public access information for the site, so ask the Lassen National Forest before going near the tower.

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

Photos

Hat Creek Rim Lookout Site - 2008
Hat Creek Rim Lookout Site - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone

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, height, 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.