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Fire lookout · Plumas County, California

Mount Ingalls Lookout (now at the Quincy Fairgrounds)

Also known as Mount Ingalls Lookout, Quincy Fairgrounds

1936 Plumas National Forest lookout on Mount Ingalls, dismantled and moved in 1984 to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, where it is an interpretive display.

Original site: Mount Ingalls

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Displayed on the grounds of the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy. Hours and current condition not confirmed in the sources read.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1976)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story building10-foot enclosed timber tower built to California Region 5 Plan BC-301The design: BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,468 ft (1,057 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Plumas National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Plumas County, California
Coordinates
39.93966, −120.91466
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-ingalls-at-quincy-fairgrounds

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 3.5 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. 1922 First staffedLookout station on the top of Mount Ingalls near Walker Mine, with Ed Merry as lookout; earliest station named in the sources readSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 BuiltRegister gives 1936 for the summit tower; the Quincy marker says a CCC company built it in 1935Sources: nhlr.org, hmdb.org
  3. No record between 1936 and 1962
  4. 1962 EventLookout Jim Bailey struck by fragments of a bullet that broke up on the catwalk; stayed at post until a replacement cameSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1976 ClosedStation closed down and not to reopen the next year except in times of emergency (September 1976 report)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1984 RebuiltReconstructed at the fairgrounds; the marker credits Reserve Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 2Sources: nhlr.org, hmdb.org
  7. 1984 MovedMoved to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in QuincySources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com, hmdb.org
  8. 1984 RemovedStructure dismantled and taken off the mountaintopSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1984 and 2019
  10. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 30, 2019 as US 1390, CA 213Source: nhlr.org
  11. Date unknown MovedMoved from Ingalls to the Quincy Fairgrounds.Source: FFLA
  12. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Mount Ingalls, at 8,372 feet, is the high point of Plumas County, California.1 A lookout station was already on the summit by 1922, when the Plumas National-Bulletin reported that Ed Merry was working there as lookout, near the Walker Mine.2 The register dates the tower that stood on the summit to 1936. It was a 10-foot enclosed timber tower built to a California Region 5 plan.1 The Quincy marker credits a Civilian Conservation Corps company with building it in 1935, so the two sources disagree by a year.1,3

Several lookouts are named in the newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.2 Ed Merry resigned in 1930, and Clark Hart took the post in June 1936.2 In 1962 a lookout named Jim Bailey was hurt when a bullet broke apart on the catwalk and struck him in six places.2 He stayed at his post until a replacement could be sent.2

In September 1976 the station was closed down, with no reopening planned for the following season apart from emergencies.2 In 1984 the structure was taken apart and moved to the fairgrounds in Quincy.1,2 The marker says it was dismantled and rebuilt by a Navy Reserve construction battalion.3

The register, which listed the lookout in 2019, calls it a fire detection interpretive site at the fairgrounds.1 The marker stands on the fairgrounds grounds. Access is via Fairgrounds Road, south of Lee Road.3 I did not find current visiting hours or a recent condition report, so check with the fairgrounds or the Plumas National Forest before you go.

  1. Mount Ingalls Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-ingalls-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Ingalls, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/mount-ingalls.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mt. Ingalls Lookout Historical Marker, Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org), https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56501 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Mount Ingalls Lookout 2008 - Relocated 1984
Mount Ingalls Lookout 2008 - Relocated 1984 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mount Ingalls Lookout Site - 2002
Mount Ingalls Lookout Site - 2002 (2002)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Road to Mount Ingalls Lookout Site - 2004
Road to Mount Ingalls Lookout Site - 2004 (2004)Photo: Gary Kremen, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
October 2022 photo
October 2022 photo (2022)Photo: Jeff Greef, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
October 2022 photo
October 2022 photo (2022)Photo: Jeff Greef, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: 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
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, 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, agency, access, staffing, 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.