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Fire lookout · Placer County, California

Howell Hill Lookout

State-built 60-foot steel lookout near Colfax, erected in 1930 after a county funding dispute; a 2024 trip report found it closed behind a locked gate.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. A 2024 trip report found the facility closed, with a locked gate at the junction with Mt. Howell Rd

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Do not pass the locked gate. Check with Cal Fire before planning any visit.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 1930)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, an Aermotor Company product; a house on the grounds was built under the ECW program in 1935The design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1930
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
2,718 ft (828 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit (Cal Fire NEU)
Land
Unknown
Location
Placer County, California
Coordinates
39.06711, −120.97213
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-howell-hill

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 3.4 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. 1930 BuiltErected by the State in 1930 as the Mt. Howell Lookout Station on the McDonald ranch near Landers Station. Lions clubs and residents donated time and money for the access road.Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 StaffedA November 1930 notice said the Landers Lookout station would close for the winter. Whether that is this tower is not confirmed.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 First staffedEd Hinchey of Colfax was to be in charge of the station after June 1, 1930Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 EventHouse on the grounds built under the Emergency Conservation Work program; the register says it still reflects its CCC originSource: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1935 and 1957
  6. 1957 AlteredCab modification and catwalk addition, circa 1957Source: nhlr.org
  7. No record between 1957 and 2019
  8. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 24, 2019 as US 1336, CA 159Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2024 ClosedA 2024 trip report found the facility closed behind a locked gate, with buildings near the tower boarded upSource: snwburd.com
  10. 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.

The Howell Hill lookout near Colfax in Placer County grew out of a dispute between the state and the county. In December 1927 the state forester, M. B. Pratt, asked the county for one thousand dollars toward a lookout near Colfax, and the supervisors refused.1 A 1929 notice said a large part of the county was left without lookout coverage as a result.1

The state went ahead in 1930.1 A March notice said work would start on a station on McDonald Hill near Colfax. Lions clubs from Auburn and Colfax and other local residents donated time and money to build the road up to it.1 The station was erected under District Ranger Al Frost, and a May 1930 notice announced its dedication as the Mt. Howell Lookout Station, on the McDonald ranch near Landers Station.1

The National Historic Lookout Register says the state erected a 60-foot steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab in 1930. It says the cab was reworked and a catwalk added around 1957, and that a house built under the Emergency Conservation Work program in 1935 still reflects its CCC origin.2

Ed Hinchey of Colfax was to be in charge of the station after June 1, 1930.1 A November 1930 notice said a station called the Landers Lookout would close for the winter, and that that year's fires were spotted much more quickly. The sources do not say whether that station is the same tower.1

Today the register lists the lookout as administered by the Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit of Cal Fire, and it dates the registration to October 24, 2019.2 A 2024 hiker's trip report describes a CalFire lookout tower at the top of the hill.3 The writer parked below a locked gate at the junction with Mt. Howell Road, and found the buildings near the tower boarded up and apparently disused.3 The same report also describes concrete footings from a fire lookout that once stood on Camels Hump, a different summit it visited.3 Because the gate is locked, do not go past it. Check with Cal Fire before planning any visit.

  1. Howell Hill, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), with newspaper clippings from the Journal-Republican and Placer Herald, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/howell-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Howell Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/howell-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Trip report, Howell Hill section, snwburd.com, https://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_reports/2024-05-23.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Howell Hill Lookout - 2009
Howell Hill Lookout - 2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Howell Hill Lookout
Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
June 3, 1930
June 3, 1930 (1930)Photo: Stockton Independent, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.