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Fire lookout · Plumas County, California

Lexington Hill Lookout Site

Plumas summit lookout built in 1933; its cab and 20-foot tower were re-erected on Pike County Peak in 1983, where they stand.

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. The cab and 20-foot tower were dismantled in 1983 and re-erected on Pike County Peak in Yuba County.

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
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towerNational Plan CL-100 cab on a 20-foot steel tower (replacement built 1961 or 1962); moved to Pike County Peak in 1983The designs: CL-100, BC-301
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
5,777 ft (1,761 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Plumas National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Plumas County, California
Coordinates
39.67861, −121.00985
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-lexington-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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at its recorded height.

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

  1. 1933 BuiltOriginal structure, a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 on an enclosed timber tower (register wording)Source: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 1949
  3. 1949 Condition assessmentCoast and Geodetic Survey station description: tower 14 feet square and 26 feet highSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1959 FireBetween 1949 and 1959 the station made 36 first discoveries of firesSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1961 Replaced by a new structureCL-100 cab on a 20-foot K-brace steel tower. A June 1962 newspaper announced construction of the new lookoutSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1961 and 1983
  7. 1983 MovedCab and tower dismantled and re-erected on Pike County Peak. Peakbagging gives 1984Sources: firetower.org, peakbagging.com, nhlr.org
  8. 1983 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "1983".Source: FFLOS register entry
  9. No record between 1983 and 2020
  10. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 10, 2020Source: firetower.org
  11. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from.

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.

The Lexington Hill lookout stood on the summit of Lexington Hill, about two miles west of La Porte, in Plumas County.1,2 The register says the first structure went up in 1933 as a California Region 5 plan on an enclosed timber tower.2 A 1949 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description gives the lookout tower as 14 feet square and 26 feet high.1 The register's 1933 entry gives a different figure, and the sources do not reconcile it with the 1949 survey.2,1

A 1962 newspaper report said the 1933 structure was part of the basic fire detection network of the Plumas National Forest, and that the lookout gave detection coverage of about 50,000 acres.1 From 1949 to 1959, the station made 36 first discoveries of fires.1

The register dates the tower's replacement to 1961, a CL-100 design on a 20-foot K-brace steel tower.2 A June 1962 newspaper report announced construction of a new lookout, so the two sources differ by a year.1

In 1983 the lookout and tower were dismantled and re-erected on Pike County Peak, in Yuba County.2,3 Peakbagging gives the year as 1984.4 The Pike County Peak entry in the National Historic Lookout Register says the lookout was actively detecting fires in 2019.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the Lexington Hill summit today.2,1 The sources do not say whether the Pike County Peak tower is open to visitors, so check with the Plumas National Forest before any visit.3

  1. Lexington Hill - FOREST LOOKOUTS (newspaper transcriptions), californialookouts.weebly.com, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/lexington-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lexington Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/lexington-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pike County Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/pike-county-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lexington Hill (LO site), Peakbagging.com, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/LexingtonHill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Lexington Hill Lookout
Lexington Hill LookoutPhoto: Mark Swift Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
September 1933
September 1933 (1933)Photo: Plumas Independent, 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, 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) Gave us: height 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.