Fire lookout · Shasta County, California
Hogback Mountain Lookout
Steel lookout in Shasta-Trinity NF, dated 1977 by the register; its lookout first spotted the 1992 Fountain Fire. Not on the Forest Service rental list.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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
- Trail
- Hogback is not among the Forest Service lookouts and guard stations offered for rent. Public access to the tower is not confirmed in the sources read.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Two-story buildingCalifornia Region 5 Plan C16, a revision of the CL-100 all steel design; the cab sits on a 9-foot brick towerThe design: CL-100
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1977
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 3,789 ft (1,155 m)
- Agency
- US Forest Service - Shasta-Trinity National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Shasta County, California
- Coordinates
- 40.88341, −121.99842
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-hogback-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 3.6 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
- 1977 BuiltRegister: the current structure was constructed in 1977. The register's wording implies an earlier structure, which the sources read do not identify.Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1977 and 1992
- 1992 FireFountain Fire, August 20, 1992: a lookout atop Hogback Mountain first spotted it at about 12:50 p.m., reporting smoke near a historic drinking fountain along Highway 299Source: en.wikipedia.org
- No record between 1992 and 2019
- 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 26, 2019 as US 1345, CA 168Source: nhlr.org
- 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.
The lookout on Hogback Mountain stands in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Shasta County.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the current structure was constructed in 1977.1 That date suggests an earlier lookout once stood on the site, but the sources I read do not name it.
The register describes the tower as California Region 5 Plan C16, a revision of the CL-100 all-steel design, with the cab set on a 9-foot brick tower.1
The lookout is tied to the 1992 Fountain Fire. Wikipedia says a lookout atop Hogback Mountain was the first to spot the fire, at about 12:50 p.m. on August 20. It reported a column of smoke behind a ridge, by a historic drinking fountain on Highway 299, and the fire took its name from that fountain.3 Wikipedia cites its own sources for this account, so treat it as a lead to check rather than a final record.3
The register lists the Forest Service as the administrator and gives an October 26, 2019 registration date, as US 1345, CA 168.1 Its photos date from 2008 and 2009.1 I found no later source on the tower's condition or staffing.
Today the Forest Service lists five lookouts and guard stations for rent, and Hogback is not one of them.4 I could not confirm whether the public may visit the tower. Check with the Shasta-Trinity National Forest before going, and do not climb it unless the Forest Service says the public may.
- Hogback Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/hogback-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- California Lookouts (Standing), Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ca-st/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Fountain Fire, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_Fire (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Cabins for Rent, Shasta-Trinity National Forest (fs.usda.gov), https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/shasta-trinity/recreation/camping-cabins (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- 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: 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, status, agency, visiting details, 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 1345 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Fountain Fire (Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)) (opens another site)
- Cabins for Rent (Shasta-Trinity National Forest (fs.usda.gov)) (opens another site)
- California Lookouts (Standing) (Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org)) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Hogback Mountain 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.