Fire lookout · Tehama County, California
Pattymocus Butte Lookout
CDF fire lookout in Tehama County; a 1970 tower and cab replaced an earlier CCC lookout. Unstaffed in a 2016 photo note and managed by Cal Fire.
- 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.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- The register says the site is some 7 miles from the nearest paved road.
- Staffing
- Not staffed (as of 2016)
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerShortest steel K-brace tower in California; early version of the standard CDF 732-6A cabThe design: CDF 732-6A
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1970
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 3,975 ft (1,212 m)
- Agency
- California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - Tehama-Glenn Unit (Cal Fire TGU)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Tehama County, California
- Coordinates
- 40.29630, −122.86830
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-pattymocus-butte
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 3.0 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
- 1921 EventActive fire detection site by 1921, cooperative between the Forest Service and the StateSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1921 and 1950
- 1950 EventCDF assumed sole operation of the lookoutSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1950 and 1970
- 1970 BuiltRegister build year. The existing tower and cab replaced an earlier CCC lookout and garageSource: nhlr.org
- No record between 1970 and 2019
- 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 28, 2019 as US 1362, CA 185Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Pattymocus Butte is a low, rocky peak in Tehama County, in open cattle country about seven miles from the nearest paved road.1 It was already an active fire detection site by 1921, run cooperatively by the Forest Service and the state, and in 1950 the state took over running it alone.1 The station was first called Beegum Lookout.1
In 1970 the buildings that stand there now replaced an earlier CCC lookout and its garage.1 The tower is the shortest steel K-brace tower in California, the register says, and its cab is an early version of a standard CDF design that the agency still uses in Region 2.1 The register also says neither structure has been changed since it was built, and it added the site to its list in October 2019.1
In a 2016 photo note, the lookout was described as in good condition but not staffed, and CalFire was said to manage it even though it sits on National Forest land.2 No AC power lines reach the summit, and a storage building near the lookout appears to be used as a solar-powered radio repeater site.2 A 1952 photo of the outhouse at the lookout, taken by Vern F. Knedler, is in the public domain.3
I found no public visiting information, so treat this as a Cal Fire site and do not climb the tower.
- Pattymocus Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/pattymocus-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Pattymocus Butte Lookout, California, Peakbagging.com, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/PattymocusButte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Pattymocus outhouse, looking north, 1952, Internet Archive (archive.org, California Revealed / Cal Fire Museum records), https://archive.org/details/casbcfm_000230 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
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, register numbers, agency, 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
- 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, agency, staffing, 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 1362 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Pattymocus Butte Lookout, California (Peakbagging.com) (opens another site)
- Pattymocus outhouse, looking north, 1952 (Internet Archive (California Revealed / Cal Fire Museum records)) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Pattymocus Butte on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.