Fire lookout · El Dorado County, California
Leek Spring Hill Lookout
A 1961 CL-100 cab on a 30-ft steel tower, after a 1915 Forest Service lookout; manned in 2004, with road access reports that disagree.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. A 2004 register visit note says visitors are welcome; the road guide does not address visitors.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- Unpaved road of about 2.5 miles from the Mormon Emigrant Trail. A 2004 register visit note says two-wheel drive can make it; a road guide says four-wheel drive only, not plowed in winter, usually open from mid-to-late June.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower1961 CL-100 cabin (National Plan, 1959 revision) on a 30-foot K-brace open steel towerThe design: CL-100
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1915
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- 7,629 ft (2,325 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service, Eldorado National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- El Dorado County, California
- Coordinates
- 38.62922, −120.27773
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-leek-spring-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 3.2 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
- 1914 First staffedMelvin Marshall was the Forest Service lookout 'last season' per a July 1915 paper; he returned July 1, 1915Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1915 BuiltFirst tower (50 or 60 feet, depending on the paper) and a 14-foot-square lookout house, built under Ranger J. M. HughesSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1915 FireFire near Peddler Hill, August 25, 1915; its direction was reported from the Leek Spring tower; about two-fifths of an acre burnedSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1929 FireBlaze along a pipeline below the El Dorado Power house, discovered by the Leek Springs lookout; papers say careless smokers likely started itSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1929 StaffedEugene Compton left to be on duty at the Leek Springs lookout for the summer (June 21, 1929 paper)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1936 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Howard Cullers reported leaving for the Leek Springs Mountain lookout station (June 4, 1936 paper)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1936 and 1961
- 1961 BuiltCurrent CL-100 cabin on a 30-foot K-brace open steel tower, per the registerSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1961 and 2004
- 2004 StaffedRegister visit note dated September 4, 2004: 'This LO is Manned'; visitors welcomeSource: nhlr.org
- 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 3, 2015, nominated by M. SillsSource: 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.
Leek Spring Hill is a 7,629-foot peak in the Eldorado National Forest, in El Dorado County, California.1 The current cab dates to 1961.1 The register ties the cab to a CL-100 design from the 1959 revision of the National Plan, set on a 30-foot steel tower with K-braces.1
The site was in use long before that.2 In 1915 Forest officers put up a tower and a lookout house, and local papers that year describe the tower as 50 or 60 feet tall, with a 14-foot-square house.2 The papers disagree on the tower height.2 Melvin Marshall worked the station in 1914 and returned for the 1915 season.2 Later papers name Eugene Compton on duty there in 1929, and Howard Cullers leaving for the station in 1936.2
The papers also record fires. In August 1915 a fire near Peddler Hill was reported with its direction from the Leek Spring tower, and a forest fireman reached it in 23 minutes and held it to about two-fifths of an acre.2 In 1929 the lookout spotted a blaze along a pipeline below the El Dorado Power house, which papers thought careless smokers had started.2 The sources I read do not say what became of the 1915 tower or house.
The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.3 A road guide says the lookout is typically staffed during fire season.4 The register added the lookout on January 3, 2015, on a nomination by M. Sills.1 A visit note dated September 4, 2004 on the register says the lookout was manned and that visitors are welcome.1
Access is the open question. The 2004 note gives directions from Forest Route 5 and says two-wheel drive can make the trip.1 The road guide describes an unpaved road of about 2.5 miles from the Mormon Emigrant Trail, suited only to four-wheel-drive vehicles, not plowed in winter, and usually open from mid-to-late June.4 Because the two accounts disagree, check current road and staffing conditions with the Eldorado National Forest before going.
- Leek Spring Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/leek-spring-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Leek Spring Mountain, California Forest Lookouts history notes, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/leek-spring-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- California Lookouts (California list), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Driving the 4x4 Road to Leek Spring Hill in California, Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/8974-leek-spring-hill.html (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, 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 1058 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Driving the 4x4 Road to Leek Spring Hill in California (Dangerous Roads) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Leek Spring Hill 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.