Fire lookout · Tulare County, California
Milk Ranch Peak Lookout
Sequoia NP lookout: a 1964 steel cab replaced a 1927 wood tower; last staffed 1996; the 2021 Paradise Fire damaged it, and sources disagree on what survived.
- 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
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Cab on a towerall-steel CL-100 plan 13x13 cab on a 20 ft K-brace open steel tower, built 1964The design: CL-100
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1927
- Height
- 20 ft (6.1 m)
- Elevation
- 6,250 ft (1,905 m)
- Agency
- National Park Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Tulare County, California
- Coordinates
- 36.48635, −118.78079
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-milk-ranch-peak
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 3.1 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
- 1927 Builtearlier wood tower on the summit; NHLR says built as early as 1927, Peakbagging says about 1927Sources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
- No record between 1927 and 1952
- 1952 StaffedMay 1952 newspaper item: Rose Vaughn moved from nine years at Cahoon Rock to a new station at Milk Ranch PeakSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1964 Builtall-steel CL-100 cab on a 20 ft steel tower, replacing the earlier wood buildingSources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
- 1972 StaffedJuly 13, 1972 Chula Vista Star-News item: Willard Layton watching for fires from the stationSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1972 and 1996
- 1996 AbandonedDropped from fire detection in 1996; afterward used for communications links.Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org, firelookout.org
- 1996 Last staffedlast staffed in 1996 per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1996 and 2021
- 2021 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFFLOS registration date October 3, 2021Source: firetower.org
- 2021 FireParadise Fire, which began September 10, 2021, burned over the summit; registers disagree on the damageSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, peakbagging.com
- 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterNHLR registration date October 7, 2021Source: nhlr.org
- 2021 RemovedFFLOS record marks the lookout as removed in 2021Source: firetower.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.
Milk Ranch Peak sits inside Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, and the National Park Service administers its lookout.1 The first structure on the summit was a wood tower, which the National Historic Lookout Register dates to as early as 1927.1,2 Peakbagging describes it the same way, as a two-storey wood tower put up about that time.2
The steel cabin that stands there now was built in 1964 to replace it.1,2 The register describes an all-steel cab, 13 by 13 feet, on a 20-foot steel tower.1,2
According to the register, Bob Roberts and Rose Vaughn were long-time lookouts there from the 1930s through the 1950s.1 A May 1952 newspaper item, reprinted by the California Fire Lookouts compilation, says Vaughn had spent nine years at Cahoon Rock before moving to a new station at Milk Ranch Peak, north of the Mineral King Road.3 A July 1972 item from the Chula Vista Star-News says Willard Layton, of Bonita, was back on fire watch at the station.3 The register says the lookout was last staffed in 1996.1
The Paradise Fire began on September 10, 2021.1 Early in the fire, the register says, the lookout and its communications gear were damaged in a burnover, and the structure's condition was still being evaluated in October 2021.1 The register also says park staff took the Osborne Fire-Finder away and kept it safe.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register takes a harsher view: it says the lookout was reported lost and overrun, with the Fire-Finder rescued just before that.4 Peakbagging says the main building was spared, while an aluminum equipment shelter near the tower burned and melted.2 The sources do not agree, so I have recorded the status as disputed.
Both registers added the lookout in October 2021, the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register on October 3 and the National Historic Lookout Register on October 7.4,1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites record also marks the lookout as removed in 2021.4 The sources I checked say nothing about current access, a rebuild, or a rental, so those questions remain open.
- Milk Ranch Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/milk-ranch-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Milk Ranch Peak, Tulare County, California, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/MilkRanchPk.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Milk Ranch Peak, California Fire Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/milk-ranch-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Milk Ranch Peak Lookout, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/milk-ranch-peak-lookout/ (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.
Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Standing
- NHLR: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, register numbers, 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
- 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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports (opens another site) Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1517 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLOS register entry US 2071 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Milk Ranch Peak, Tulare County, California (Peakbagging) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: work on Milk Ranch Peak Lookout (opens another site)
- Milk Ranch Peak Lookout - Forest Lookouts Page (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.