Fire lookout · Fresno County, California
Musick Mountain Lookout
A 1939 steel H-beam lookout tower on Sierra National Forest, built on a site used since 1912, now deteriorating and repurposed as a communications tower.
- 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. No source found describes current public access, closure, or permission requirements; site now functions as a communications facility
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- No source found gives drive/trail access details
- Staffing
- Staffed by volunteers
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower20-foot H-beam steel tower with C-3(L) cab (1939); originally a compass-type station (1912), rebuilt as a cab/cabin tower (1924)The design: C-3
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1912
- Height
- 6,818 ft (2078.0 m)
- Elevation
- 6,818 ft (2,078 m)
- Agency
- Sierra National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Fresno County, California
- Coordinates
- 37.16992, −119.30889
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-musick-mountain
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
- 1912 BuiltOriginal compass-type lookout constructedSource: fire-lookouts.org
- 1924 Replaced by a new structureReplaced with a cab/cabin type tower, non-continuous staffingSource: fire-lookouts.org
- No record between 1924 and 1939
- 1939 Replaced by a new structureReplaced with current 20-foot H-Beam Steel Tower with C-3(L) cabSource: fire-lookouts.org
- No record between 1939 and 2019
- 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to National Historic Lookout Register as US 1315, CA 138, on October 19, 2019Source: 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.
Musick Mountain has carried a fire lookout since 1912, when the Sierra National Forest put up a simple compass-type station on the peak, at about 6,775 feet above the San Joaquin Valley.1 That original structure didn't last: in 1924 the Forest Service replaced it with a cab-and-cabin tower, a design built for watchers who came and went rather than staying on through the fire season.1 The lookout was rebuilt a second time in 1939, and it's this version that still stands today — a 20-foot steel H-beam tower topped with a C-3(L) cab, the standard Forest Service lookout design of its era.1
Records don't give a clear staffing history for Musick Mountain beyond noting that the 1924 cabin tower was used non-continuously, meaning it wasn't watched every season.1 At some point the lookout's fire-spotting duties ended, and the tower was repurposed to carry communications equipment instead.1 It has not been maintained as a lookout, and both of the main sources describing it say it has been deteriorating over the years.1
The lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on October 19, 2019, as US 1315, CA 138, a listing that documents its history but does not by itself indicate the structure is restored, staffed, or open for public access.2 No source found here describes a public access policy, a rental program, or a current climbable condition, so visitors should treat it as an active communications site on national forest land rather than an open historic attraction until better information turns up.
- Musick Mountain Fire Lookout, Fire Lookouts of California (fire-lookouts.org), https://www.fire-lookouts.org/cali/musick_mtn/index.htm (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
- Musick Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/musick-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
Photos
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
- 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
- California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org) (opens another site) Gave us: staffing, 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
- Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) (opens another site) Gave us: links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: 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, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1315 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Musick Mtn Fire Lookout on fire-lookouts.org (Rich Camp) (opens another site)
- Musick Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- Wikidata item Q86925522 (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 1200045469 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.