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Fire lookout · Eldorado County, California

Iron Mountain Lookout Site

Eldorado NF tree-platform lookout (1911 or circa 1913); cabin burned 1937, removed 1974, tree lost in 2014-15 wildfire; 2009 photo shows the foundation.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin and garage sold and removed in 1974; the lookout tree was lost in a wildfire in 2014-15 per the register

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
Ground-level cabPlatform built into a tree about 60 feet up; BC-201 cabin and garage added in 1934The design: BC-201
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1911
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,191 ft (1,887 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Eldorado National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Eldorado County, California
Coordinates
38.70482, −120.36170
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-iron-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 3.0 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. 1911 BuiltTree platform. Register photo caption says Constructed 1911; the Built field says circa 1913; a 1961 account also gives 1911Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1913 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  3. No record between 1913 and 1934
  4. 1934 BuiltBC-201 cabin and garageSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1935 StaffedForest ranger living at the lookout with his wife and a young child (1935 newspaper item)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1937 BurnedHouse and an adjoining building destroyed by fire in July 1937Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1937 and 1974
  8. 1974 RemovedCabin and garage sold and removedSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1974 and 2014
  10. 2014 BurnedLookout tree lost to wildfire; register dates it 2014-15Source: firetower.org
  11. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered January 28, 2020Source: firetower.org
  12. 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.

Iron Mountain is in the Eldorado National Forest, in El Dorado County, California.1 The register gives 1911 as the earliest date for the lookout, which began as a platform in a tree about 60 feet up.1 A 1961 Mountain Democrat account credits former lookout John Hornbrook with building it almost alone, and says the cedar tree it was built in was still standing.2 The register's Built field says circa 1913, which conflicts with its own 1911 photo caption and with the 1961 account, so the start date is uncertain.1,2

A cabin and garage of the BC-201 design went up in 1934.1 For most of its history, the lookout was manned by lookout firemen.2 A 1914 Mountain Democrat item put the ranger's lookout at 75 feet above ground, against 60 feet in the register.2,1 In 1935 a visiting writer found the forest ranger there with his wife and a young child.2

In July 1937 the house and an adjoining building burned.1,2 Joe Flynn, the lookout, was away in Placerville that night, and on his return the next morning he found both buildings destroyed.2 The register says the cabin and garage burned that month and were rebuilt afterward.1 A 1974 article dates the house and garage slated for removal to 1934 and does not mention a rebuild, so the two accounts do not line up.1,2

By 1974 the lookout was seldom used.2 The practice of staffing it with lookout firemen had ended on the Eldorado nearly twenty years earlier, and for the five years before 1974 the lookout saw no use at all.2 In 1974 the buildings were offered for sale, and the register says they were sold and removed that year.2,1 The register also lists the lookout tree as lost to a wildfire in 2014-15.1 The most recent view we found is a 2009 photo of the cabin foundation, which held the living quarters and observation room.2,1

We found no current account of the site and nothing on whether the public may visit, so check with the Eldorado National Forest before going.

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

Photos

Iron Mountain Lookout - 60 foot tree platform - Constructed 1911
Iron Mountain Lookout - 60 foot tree platform - Constructed 1911 (1911)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Iron Mountain Lookout - BC-201 Fireman Lookout Cabin Foundation - 2009
Iron Mountain Lookout - BC-201 Fireman Lookout Cabin Foundation - 2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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.