Fire lookout · Siskiyou County, California
Herd Peak Lookout
1933 CCC-built 14x14 L-4 groundhouse on Herd Peak, Klamath NF, Siskiyou County; staffed in the 1930s-1950s and today; NHLR-registered 1999; standing.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
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. Working Forest Service lookout. The register lists it as staffed on a schedule. No source says the public may enter the cab, so treat it as restricted until the Klamath National Forest says otherwise.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabclassic 14 x 14 ft L-4 groundhouse with wooden catwalk; standard Forest Service 14 x 14 ft single-story houseThe design: L-4
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- 15 ft (4.6 m)
- Elevation
- 6,908 ft (2,106 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service, Goosenest Ranger District, Klamath National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Siskiyou County, California
- Coordinates
- 41.62801, −122.23140
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-herd-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 3.3 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
- 1933 BuiltRegister gives 1933. Clipping of 25 August 1933 says the lookout house was completed on 18 August by a CCC crew in twelve working days.Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1934 StaffedEarl J. Fain stationed at the lookout; the couple wintered in Dunsmuir after the season closed.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1945 StaffedBessie Cates spent four and a half months as the lookout.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1947 StaffedBessie Cates took the station for a third consecutive season.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1952 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description of the lookout house, 14 x 14 ft standard Forest Service design, about 15 ft high.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1958 StaffedLeona Andrus returned to Herd Peak Lookout on 27 October after a stint at Ball Mountain Lookout.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1958 and 1999
- 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered April 21, 1999 per the NHLR page.Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1999 and 2019
- 2019 StaffedAn MK Library account of a 2019 visit describes Bob Clark as the tower's sole resident.Source: mklibrary.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Herd Peak's lookout house went up in August 1933, west of Grass Lake in Siskiyou County.1,2 A local history page built from Dunsmuir newspaper clippings reports that a foreman and thirteen men from the Sims C.C.C. camp finished it in twelve working days, and that it was the first building put up under the president's emergency conservation work program.2 The register classifies it as a classic L-4 groundhouse, 14 feet square, with a wooden catwalk.1 A 1952 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description gives a single-story Forest Service design about 15 feet tall.2
The register spells it Herd Mountain Lookout, and one 1934 clipping spells the summit Hurd's peak, so the name varies from source to source.1,2
Earl J. Fain was stationed there in 1934, and once the season closed he and his wife moved to Dunsmuir for the winter.2 Bessie Cates spent four and a half months on watch in 1945 and was back for a third straight season in 1947.2 Leona Andrus returned to the station in October 1958 after a stint at Ball Mountain Lookout.2 The register names Robert D. Clark as the person staffing the tower on Sundays and Mondays from May to October.1 An account of a 2019 visit describes Clark as the tower's sole resident. The two accounts differ, and the sources do not say which pattern applies today.3
The sources we read name no particular fire that the lookout spotted.
The register describes the lookout as kept in good shape and close to its original state, and it notes a cell phone tower about 200 feet away.1 The register gives April 21, 1999 as the date the lookout was registered.1 The sources we read do not record any move, rebuild or closure.
Today the register lists the lookout as staffed on Sundays and Mondays from May to October.1 Anyone who wants to visit should ask the Klamath National Forest first and should not climb into the cab uninvited.
- Herd Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/herd-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Herd Peak, Forest Lookouts (California pages), californialookouts.weebly.com, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/herd-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- "Through the Eyes of a Fire Lookout," MK Library, https://www.mklibrary.com/through-the-eyes-of-a-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: height, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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
- NHLR register entry US 304 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Through the Eyes of a Fire Lookout (MK Library) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Herd Peak on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.