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Fire lookout · Santa Clara County, California

Pacheco Peak Lookout Site

Enclosed timber lookout on Pacheco Peak, Santa Clara County, built 1935; a 1988 state filing describes taking it apart and moving it. The record's 1980 removal date is wrong.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Taken down in the late 1980s; a 1988 state filing describes it being moved.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Enclosed towerForest Service Region 5 plan BC-301 cabin atop an enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
2,759 ft (841 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - Santa Clara Unit (CAL FIRE - SCU)
Land
Unknown
Location
Santa Clara County, California
Coordinates
37.00805, −121.28770
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-pacheco-peak

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

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

  1. 1935 BuiltRegister: built 1935 for the Santa Clara County Fire Department; a September 1935 newspaper item describes construction startingSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1935 and 1980
  3. 1980 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "Late 1980's" (about 1980).Source: FFLOS register entry
  4. 1986 RemovedRegister: removed some time between 1986 and 1991. 1986 is the start of that window, not a dated recordSource: firetower.org
  5. 1988 MovedState negative declaration (received March 1988) describes disassembling the tower and re-erecting it in San Benito County; an August 1988 notice describes relocating the tower and building a radio vaultSources: ceqanet.lci.ca.gov, ceqanet.lci.ca.gov
  6. 1994 EventState filing for a 120 ft self-supporting antenna tower at a Pacheco Peak communications facilitySource: ceqanet.lci.ca.gov
  7. No record between 1994 and 2020
  8. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegister date April 16, 2020Source: firetower.org
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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.

The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register dates the Pacheco Peak lookout to 1935.1 A September 1935 item from the Oakland Tribune, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, said construction would start within about ten days under W.D. Winters, the chief state fire ranger for Santa Clara County, and that crews were finishing a road so supplies could reach the summit.2

The register says the lookout was constructed for the Santa Clara County Fire Department, and that a cabin built to a Forest Service plan, Region 5 BC-301, sat atop an enclosed timber tower.1 The newspaper names a state fire official, not a county department, as directing the work, so the two sources credit different agencies.1,2

A 1947 Coast and Geodetic Survey description, copied on the Forest Lookouts page, puts the lookout house at about 14 by 14 feet and about 40 feet high, painted white.2

The register's photo captions show the lookout in 1977 and an outhouse that remained in 2013.1 The register also says the structure was removed some time between 1986 and 1991.1 A 1988 state environmental filing describes taking the tower apart and re-erecting it elsewhere. Its wording is garbled, but it appears to name San Benito County as the new site.3 An August 1988 notice describes the project as relocating the lookout tower and building a radio vault.4

A 1994 state filing covers a 120-foot self-supporting antenna tower at a Pacheco Peak communications facility, which suggests the summit was still used for radio equipment.5

I could not find any source describing what, if anything, remains of the lookout today, or whether the summit is open to the public. Check with CAL FIRE, which the register names as administrator, before going to the summit.1

  1. Pacheco Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/pacheco-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pacheco Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (California), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pacheco-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. PACHECO PEAK LOOKOUT, CEQAnet, SCH 1988030821, https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/1988030821 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. PACHECO PEAK LOOKOUT, notice of determination, CEQAnet, https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/1988030821/2 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. PACHECO PEAK COMMUNICATIONS FACILITY CONSTRUCT ANTENNA, CEQAnet, https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/1994107435 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Pacheco Peak Lookout - 1977
Pacheco Peak Lookout - 1977 (1977)Photo: Devony Lehner, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Outhouse Remained in 2013
Outhouse Remained in 2013 (2013)Photo: Fred Johnson, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.