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Fire lookout · Mariposa County, California

Penon Blanco Peak Lookout

Mariposa County L-601 tower with BC-301 cab, built 1936 in the CCC era; Cal Fire administers it; NHLR-registered 2019; exterior in poor condition; current status unconfirmed.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Register says the station is not readily accessible to the public, some 2 miles from paved road; the note is marked 10/91 (October 1991). No public visiting arrangement found.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Enclosed towerCCC-era L-601 tower with matching BC-301 cabThe design: BC-301
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,878 ft (877 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit (Cal Fire MMU)
Land
Unknown
Location
Mariposa County, California
Coordinates
37.73195, −120.26139 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-penon-blanco-peak

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 3.5 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. 1936 BuiltCCC-era L-601 tower with BC-301 cabSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1946 AlteredAluminum siding added over original v-grooveSource: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1946 and 1991
  4. 1991 Condition assessmentSurvey referenced in register; siding damage noted after itSource: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1991 and 2019
  6. 2019 Condition assessmentAssessment team surveyed the Cal Fire lookout on 9 December 2019 with Buck Rock Foundation support; an engineering report was being written.Source: firelookout.org
  7. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 22, 2019Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Penon Blanco Peak Lookout went up in 1936, in the Civilian Conservation Corps era, as an L-601 tower with a matching BC-301 cab.1,2 The register calls it a good example of its type and says it retains strong historic integrity.1 It also says CDF, the state forestry agency, has only four L-601 towers.1

The register says tower alterations are few.1 Aluminum siding went over the original v-groove in 1946, the wood fire escape was replaced by a roll-up chain ladder, and the ground floor holds a 350-gallon water storage tank.1

I found no record of the lookout's operators or of any notable fires in the sources I could read.1,2

The register says the exterior is in poor shape and that siding damage has occurred since a 1991 survey.1 I could not confirm from the sources I read whether the tower still stands.1,2 The entry itself was registered on October 22, 2019.1

The Cal Fire Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit administers the site.1 The register says the station is hard for the public to reach, about two miles from a paved road, in a note dated October 1991.1 Radio repeaters sit inside the lookout, with antennas on the catwalk.1 I found no rental for the tower in the sources I read.1,2

  1. Penon Blanco Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/penon-blanco-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Penon Blanco Peak, Forest Lookouts California, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/penon-blanco-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Penon Blanco Peak Lookout - 2006
Penon Blanco Peak Lookout - 2006 (2006)Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2010
2010 (2010)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 950 m.

    • NHLR: 37.73195, −120.26139
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 37.73215, −120.25060

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, access, 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.