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Fire lookout · Monterey County, California

Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site

Short-lived Aircraft Warning Service cabin in Los Padres National Forest, Monterey County; discontinued 1944-45 and destroyed in the 1954 Devil's Peak fire.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin destroyed in the 1954 Devil's Peak fire; the sources describe no remains

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 cabStandard AWS ground cabin with an observer's cupola, materials packed in by mule
Built of
Not recorded
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Built
1942
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,428 ft (1,350 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Los Padres National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Monterey County, California
Coordinates
36.38580, −121.78831
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-carmel-lookout-aws

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 3.1 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

  1. 1942 BuiltBuilt as a standard AWS cabin; the register's description says 1943 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1944 ClosedPost deactivated sometime in 1944 or 1945; Forest Lookouts says discontinued 1944-45 once no longer neededSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1954 BurnedCabin destroyed in the 1954 Devil's Peak fireSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1954 and 2019
  5. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 20, 2019 as US 1865, CA 60, nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  6. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Aircraft Warning Service operated a brief post on Mount Carmel in Monterey County, inside Los Padres National Forest.1

The register gives 1942 as the build year, but its own description says the post was constructed in 1943.1 The Forest Lookouts page, which cites a book about Los Padres lookouts, also dates the cabin to 1942.1,2 Mules packed the materials in.2 The cabin followed the standard AWS design, a ground cabin with an observer's cupola.1

The Aircraft Warning Service relied on volunteers. They logged what they saw and then phoned reports to a regional Army filter center.3

The station was discontinued in 1944 or 1945, once it was no longer needed.2,1 In 1954 the Devil's Peak fire destroyed the cabin.1,2

The register added the site in December 2019, on the nomination of Brad Eells.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or how the public may visit it.

  1. Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-carmel-lookout-aws-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Mt. Carmel - Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/mt-carmel.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Aircraft Warning Service, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Warning_Service (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site - 1943
Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site - 1943 (1943)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site, 1988
(1988)Photo: "Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest" By Irma Oksen Reaves - 1988, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mount Carmel Lookout - AWS Site, 1988
(1988)Photo: "Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest" By Irma Oksen Reaves - 1988, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
In snow
In snowPhoto: USFS - Craig R. Carey Collection, 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, type, wartime use, 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: status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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.