Fire lookout · Tuolumne County, California
Mount Elizabeth Lookout
Also known as Elizabeth Mountain
A 1961 CL-100 cab on a 55-foot steel tower above the Stanislaus National Forest, the third lookout structure on this Tuolumne County summit since at least 1925.
- 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
- Type
- Cab on a towerUSFS National Plan CL-100 cab on a 55-foot K-Brace steel tower (built 1961)The design: CL-100
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1925
- Height
- 55 ft (16.8 m)
- Elevation
- 4,931 ft (1,503 m)
- Agency
- Stanislaus National Forest, Mi-Wok Ranger District
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Tuolumne County, California
- Coordinates
- 38.06303, −120.24747
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-elizabeth
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
- 1925 BuiltOriginal lookout: a 60' "windmill type" tower with a flat, unroofed platform, in place by at least 1925Source: nhlr.org
- 1931 Replaced by a new structureSecond structure: 40' steel tower with a 7'x7' cab, plus an adjacent wooden residence, replacing the 1925 windmill towerSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1931 and 1961
- 1961 BuiltCurrent CL-100 cab on a 55' K-Brace steel tower, replacing the 1931 structureSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1961 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2017; nominated by Bill LuedekeSource: 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Mount Elizabeth rises over the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, within the Mi-Wok Ranger District.1 The earliest lookout here was a "windmill type" tower, 60 feet high with a flat, unroofed platform, already in place by 1925.1 It was replaced in 1931 by a 40-foot steel tower carrying a small 7-by-7-foot cab, with a wooden residence built alongside for the lookout keeper.1
The structure standing today dates to 1961: a U.S. Forest Service National Plan CL-100 cab set atop a 55-foot K-brace steel tower, built to replace the 1931 tower.1 At an elevation of 4,931 feet, it has been staffed daily through fire season by the Forest Service, watching for smoke across the surrounding forest.1
Mount Elizabeth was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 2017, nominated by Bill Luedeke, and carries the designations US 1186 and CA 117.1 In the Forest Fire Lookout Association's own list of California lookouts, it is likewise recorded as a standing tower.2
Beyond its physical history, little else has surfaced in available sources: no named keepers, no documented fires spotted from its catwalk, no later remodel or closure. What can be said with confidence is the arc of three structures on one summit, from open platform to roofed cab to today's enclosed, live-in lookout. It remains an active U.S. Forest Service facility, and no public access or visiting information is documented here, so check current Stanislaus National Forest guidance before planning any trip.
- Mount Elizabeth Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-elizabeth-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
- California lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
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, 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 1186 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Elizabeth Mountain 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.