FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Fresno County, California

Mount Tom Lookout

CCC-built C-3 cab lookout on a steel tower in Sierra National Forest, Fresno County; NHLR-registered 1999 and still in service per NHLR. Build year and height differ between sources.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Seasonal: closed in winter due to heavy snow; in summer the public may access the tower and surrounding area when open for service (fire-lookouts.org, older page)

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Closed in winter due to heavy snow. Sources read give no drive-up or trail directions and do not say whether the cab may be climbed.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerC-3 wooden cab (14 by 14 ft) with catwalk on a 30-32 ft K-braced steel tower with straight stairwayThe design: C-3
Built of
Steel
Built
1934
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
9,026 ft (2,751 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Fresno County, California
Coordinates
37.37611, −119.17917
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-mount-tom

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 3.4 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt by the CCC as a compass lookout with steel structure base; fire-lookouts.org gives 1934. Forest Lookouts gives 1935 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: nhlr.org, fire-lookouts.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1999
  3. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 21, 1999 as US 306, CA 34Sources: nhlr.org, fire-lookouts.org
  4. 2010 RestoredMaintenance by volunteers over several weekends: new cabinets, new floor, plumbing upgrades (FFLA report as reproduced on fire-lookouts.org)Source: fire-lookouts.org
  5. 2011 EventNew roof and outhouse scheduled; completion not confirmed in sources readSource: fire-lookouts.org
  6. 2018 EventFFLA restoration grant (amount not stated) for rehab: fixing safety railing and catwalk holes and replacing weathered heavy shutters. The chapter provided a national FFLA grant for the lookout;Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  7. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Mount Tom Lookout stands on a peak in the Sierra National Forest, in Fresno County, California.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers it.1

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the lookout, and the National Historic Lookout Register counts it among the last the corps built in California.1 The fire-lookouts.org page gives 1934 as the year, when the corps built a compass lookout whose base is steel framing.2 A Forest Lookouts county listing says 1935 instead, so the build year is not fully settled.3

The Register describes a C-3 wooden cab, 14 feet by 14 feet with a catwalk, on a K-braced steel tower of 30 to 32 feet, reached by an unusual straight stairway.1 The fire-lookouts.org page gives the tower a height of 34 feet, so the two sources differ on that figure.2

The Register accepted the lookout on April 21, 1999, as US 306, CA 34.1

The sources read do not say who staffed the tower or list any fires it watched.

The fire-lookouts.org page reprints the annual reports of the Forest Fire Lookout Association.2 The 2010 entry says volunteers did most of the work over several project weekends that summer.2 The tower received new cabinets and a new floor, and its plumbing was upgraded.2 For 2011 the reports said a new roof and an outhouse were scheduled, but the page does not say whether they were built.2

The Register says the tower is still in active service.1 According to the fire-lookouts.org page, the tower is closed in winter because of heavy snow. In summer the general public may get to the tower and its surroundings while the lookout is in use.2 Those details come from older reports, so check current access with the Sierra National Forest before any trip. The sources do not say whether visitors may go up to the cab.

  1. Mount Tom Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/mount-tom-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mount Tom Fire Lookout, fire-lookouts.org, https://www.fire-lookouts.org/cali/mt_tom/index.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Mount Tom, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/mount-tom.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Tom Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mt. Tom Fire Lookout
Mt. Tom Fire LookoutPhoto: fire-lookouts.org (Rich Camp) · Reuse allowed with credit · 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: 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
  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. California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links fire-lookouts.org · Public information per the site's disclaimer, credit requested. Facts + a short description reused under that permission -- see extra.license per record. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: design, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  6. 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.