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Fire lookout · El Dorado County, California

Pine Hill Lookout

El Dorado County enclosed tower built 1936 with CCC labor; no longer used for fire detection, now a repeater site inside the Pine Hill Preserve; listed as standing.

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
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Enclosed towerBC-301 cab atop an L-701 tower; major tower revisions in 1972The design: BC-301
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,059 ft (628 m)
Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Land
Unknown
Location
El Dorado County, California
Coordinates
38.72048, −120.99043
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-pine-hill

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. 1935 EventCCC crews building a road to the summit and a lookout stationSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 BuiltBuilt 1936; Register says constructed by the CCCSources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
  3. 1937 StaffedSummer lookout man La Verne Campbell reported at Pine HillSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1938 StaffedOswald family stationed at the lookout for the summerSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1938 and 1971
  6. 1971 AlteredForest Lookouts timeline says the lookout was remodeledSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1972 AlteredRegister says there were major tower revisionsSource: nhlr.org
  8. 1977 EventCDF announced intention to dispose of the site as surplusSource: nhlr.org
  9. 1979 EventProperty transferred to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; with county and BLM land, the Pine Hill Preserve was establishedSources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
  10. No record between 1979 and 2018
  11. 2018 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 30, 2018 as US 1283, CA 125; nominated by Michael GuerinSource: nhlr.org
  12. 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.

Pine Hill is in El Dorado County, on ground now inside the Pine Hill Preserve.1,2 In early 1935 CCC crews were building a road up to the summit and a lookout station there.3 The Register says the CCC built the lookout, a BC-301 cab on an L-701 tower.1 The Register and Peakbagging.com both give 1936 as the build year.1,2

In 1937 La Verne Campbell staffed the Pine Hill lookout for the summer.3 A year later a local paper reported that the Oswald family was staffing the lookout for the summer.3 Sources differ on the later work. The Register dates major tower work to 1972, while a Forest Lookouts timeline records a remodel in 1971.1,3

In 1977 the state forestry agency, CDF, said it intended to sell off the site as surplus land.1 In 1979 the state Department of Fish and Wildlife took over the property. Together with county and BLM land, it became the Pine Hill Preserve.1,2 The Register says the lookout has stopped working as an active fire-detection post. CalFire and other agencies use it for radio repeaters, and large radio towers dwarf it.1 The Register also says its form and design are intact.1

A Peakbagging.com page with a photo dated December 19, 2004 calls the lookout only in fair condition, run by CalFire, with staffing on an as-needed basis.2 The BLM says the Preserve parcels it manages are open to the public all year for low-impact recreation, on foot only. Its page does not address the lookout compound itself.4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the enclosed tower as standing.5 Check with CAL FIRE or the land managers before going.

  1. Pine Hill Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/pine-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Pine Hill Lookout, California, Peakbagging (peakbagging.com), http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/PineHill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Pine Hill, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pine-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Pine Hill Preserve, Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov), https://www.blm.gov/visit/pine-hill-preserve (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. California Lookouts (by County), Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ca-co/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pine Hill Lookout
Photo: Michael Guerin, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2009
2009 (2009)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.

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 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.