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Fire lookout · Shasta County, California

Mount Eddy Lookout Site

Mount Eddy lookout, Shasta-Trinity NF: cupola house completed in 1912, replaced by a Plan 4A cabin in the 1920s; removed on an unknown date, foundation reported at the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removal date unknown; the register says a foundation still exists at the summit, and a hiker's trip report mentions remains of an old lookout tower

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Reached on foot. The Forest Service describes a side trip from the Pacific Crest Trail to the summit. No road to the summit is described in these sources.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Forest Service describes the Sisson-Callahan Trail east from the PCT to the uppermost Deadfall Lake, then a side trail to the summit.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabCupola lookout house (1912), later replaced by a California Region 5 Plan 4A cabinThe designs: Cupola house, Plan 4-A
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1912
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,040 ft (2,755 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shasta County, California
Coordinates
41.31970, −122.47926
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-eddy

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 3.5 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. 1912 BuiltCupola lookout house completed on the summit (register description); 1912 newspapers describe the station going upSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1912 FireLookout discovered all eighteen thunderstorm-started fires that August, per a September 1912 paperSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1912 First staffedCompleted and staffed in 1912 (register); a 1912 paper names the federal lookout on the peakSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1920 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  5. 1920 EventLightning struck the station in August 1920 and knocked out the lookout; an October 1920 windstorm blew out its windowsSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1922 AlteredForest Service dug a shelter tunnel at the lookout stationSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1923 EventSeptember 1923 windstorm left the lookout house a practically total wreck; the lookout and his son spent the night in the tunnelSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1931 FireLookout Matt Merchant located a sawmill fire 54 miles away near Oak RunSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1931 and 2020
  10. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: April 5, 2020Source: FFLOS register entry
  11. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Mount Eddy, a peak just west of Sisson in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, got its first fire lookout in 1912.1,2 The first house was a cupola, completed and staffed that year.1 A July 1912 newspaper said lumber was being carried up by mule, and a telephone line was planned to link the station with the forest headquarters in Sisson.2

The register describes frequent severe storms, high winds and lightning strikes at the site, and says lightning strikes on the building twice injured its operators.1 A September 1912 paper said the federal lookout on the peak had spotted all eighteen fires that thunderstorms started that August.2 In August 1920 lightning struck the station, tore a hole in the station house and knocked the lookout, J. S. McClemmons, unconscious.2 The clippings spell his name several ways.2 That October a windstorm blew out the windows, and the keeper, F. A. Nixon, crawled under a small platform and lay there until morning.2 The Forest Service dug a shelter tunnel near the summit in 1922.2 In September 1923 another storm left the lookout house a "practically total wreck," and William J. Hale and his son had to spend the night in that tunnel.2 Hale had taken the post after two earlier occupants refused to return.2

In 1931 Matt Merchant spotted a sawmill fire 54 miles away, a distance the paper called a record for northern California.2

According to the register, a California Region 5 Plan 4A cabin took the first house's place at some point in the 1920s.1 It gives no removal date. It does say a foundation still exists at the summit.1

Today the summit is reached on foot.3 The Forest Service describes a side trip from the Pacific Crest Trail: a climb to the uppermost Deadfall Lake, then a side trail up to the summit.3 A hiker's trip report describes the remains of an old lookout tower near the top.4 The sources do not say whether that is the same foundation the register mentions.

  1. Mount Eddy Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-eddy-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Eddy, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/mount-eddy.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) west, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/shasta-trinity/recreation/trails/pacific-crest-trail-pct-west-i-5 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mt Eddy, CA, Oregon Hikers forum, https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30372 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Mount Eddy Lookout - 4A cabin and previous Cupola cabin
Mount Eddy Lookout - 4A cabin and previous Cupola cabinPhoto: Nancy Hood Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mount Eddy Lookout Site
Photo: Nancy Hood Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1914
1914 (1914)Photo: National Archives (OPA), via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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) 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, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.