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Fire lookout · Plumas County, California

Mount Ingalls

Mount Ingalls summit lookout (register: 1936) was taken down in 1984 and rebuilt at the Quincy fairgrounds; SummitPost says only the foundation remains on the summit.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at the Quincy Fairgrounds

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. Dismantled in 1984 and rebuilt at the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy; a hiking guide (SummitPost) says only the foundation is left on the summit

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. The Quincy display is on the Plumas County Fairgrounds grounds; the sources read give no hours. The summit is in the Plumas National Forest, reached by logging roads from Lake Davis (SummitPost).

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Round trip a little over 2 miles with about 525 feet of elevation gain, from a logging-road intersection (SummitPost).
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Enclosed tower10-foot enclosed timber tower built to California Region 5 Plan BC-301 (register)The design: BC-301
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
US Forest Service, Plumas National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Plumas County, California
Coordinates
39.99417, −120.62744
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-ingalls

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.8 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 staffedEd Merry working as lookout at the government station on the top of Mount Ingalls near Walker Mine; earliest station named in the sources readSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 EventEd Merry resigned as forest service lookout at Mt. Ingalls in August 1930Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1936 BuiltRegister gives 1936 for the tower; the Quincy marker says Company 989 of the CCC built it in 1935Sources: nhlr.org, hmdb.org
  4. 1936 StaffedClark Hart took the post in June 1936Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1943 StaffedMrs. Harry Kelley stationed at the Forest Service lookout (September 1943 item)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1946 StaffedLois Olds, an artist, had spent three years as a lookout and was back for 1946Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1960 EventChosen as one of three Northern California lookouts for a time-lapse camera study with the State Forestry Division and the Weather BureauSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1962 EventSeptember 1962: a bullet fragmented on the catwalk and struck lookout Jim Bailey in six places; he stayed at his post until a replacement cameSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1976 ClosedSeptember 1976: station closed down and not to reopen the next year except in emergenciesSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1984 RemovedStructure dismantled and moved to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy; the marker says a Navy Reserve construction battalion dismantled and rebuilt it thereSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com, hmdb.org
  11. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to the Quincy Fairgrounds.Source: FFLA
  12. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from.

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.

Mount Ingalls, at 8,372 feet, is the high point of Plumas County.1 A lookout station was on the summit by July 1922, when the Plumas National-Bulletin reported that Ed Merry was working there near the Walker Mine.2

The tower the register dates to 1936 was a 10-foot enclosed timber tower built to a California Region 5 plan.1 The Quincy marker credits Company 989 of the Civilian Conservation Corps with building it in 1935, so the two sources differ by a year.3,1

Merry resigned in August 1930, and Clark Hart took the post in June 1936.2 A 1943 item names Mrs. Harry Kelley as stationed at the lookout, and by 1946 Lois Olds, an artist, had spent three years there.2 In 1960 Mount Ingalls was one of three Northern California lookouts chosen for a time-lapse camera, part of a study with the State Forestry Division and the Weather Bureau.2

In September 1962 a high-velocity bullet broke apart on a post of the catwalk and struck lookout Jim Bailey in six places. He stayed at his post until a replacement could be sent.2

In September 1976 the station was closed down. The Portola Reporter said it would not reopen the next year except in emergencies, such as when lightning was likely.2 In 1984 the structure was taken apart and moved to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy.1,2 The marker says a Navy Reserve construction battalion, the "Sea Bees," dismantled and rebuilt it there.3

The register calls the Quincy structure a fire-detection interpretive site, and the marker stands on the fairgrounds grounds, reached from Fairgrounds Road south of Lee Road.1,3 The sources read give no current hours for the display.

At the summit, a hiking guide says that all that is left of the lookout today is the foundation.4 The same guide says the tower was removed intact and placed in a museum in Portola, which conflicts with the Quincy record.4,1 Hikers reach the trailhead by logging roads that begin near Lake Davis, and the round trip from the four-way intersection where most park is a little over two miles.4

  1. Mount Ingalls Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-ingalls-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Mount Ingalls - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/mount-ingalls.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Mt. Ingalls Lookout Historical Marker, Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56501 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Mt. Ingalls, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/mt-ingalls/424918 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: agency, ownership, 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
  3. 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.