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Fire lookout · Los Angeles County, California

Pine Mountain Lookout Site

Pine Mountain lookout, Angeles NF, Los Angeles County: 1935 cabin on a 10 ft timber tower, burned in 1968 and not rebuilt. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in 1968 and not rebuilt, per the register and 1968 newspaper items quoted on Forest Lookouts. No source describes what remains at the site.

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
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 10-foot open timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,545 ft (1,385 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Angeles National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates
34.22347, −117.90197
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-pine-mountain-2

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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

  1. 1935 BuiltRegister gives 1935 as the build year. The site was chosen after a seen-area survey completed in 1934.Source: firetower.org
  2. 1937 AlteredCovina Argus item dated August 20, 1937 says work had started on a garage at the lookout (as quoted by Forest Lookouts).Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1937 and 1960
  4. 1960 EventUsed for a Los Angeles County cloud seeding project for a time. The register gives only 'early to mid 1960's'; 1960 is the decade start, not a sourced date.Source: firetower.org
  5. 1968 BurnedBurned in an August 1968 fire in the Fish Canyon area. The register files it as a 1968 arson fire and says the building was burned by 'hippies' and not rebuilt.Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1968 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 11, 2020.Source: firetower.org
  8. 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 Pine Mountain lookout stood in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, at 4,545 feet, or 1,385 meters.1 The site was picked after a survey of the land visible from the peak was completed in 1934.1 The register dates the building to 1935.1 The register describes a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on an open timber tower 10 feet high.1 An August 1937 newspaper item says work had begun on a garage at the lookout.2

By the late 1940s the cabin had stopped being staffed for fire detection.1 Briefly, in the early to mid 1960s, the cabin was used by a cloud seeding project run by Los Angeles County.1

In August 1968 a fire burned through the Fish Canyon area.2 A Eugene, Oregon paper reported that the fire covered more than 18,000 acres, wiped out about a dozen cabins, and burned a disused lookout tower on Pine Mountain.2 The register files the 1968 event as an arson fire and attributes the burning to "hippies."1 A Pasadena paper, quoted on the same page, described the tower as having sat unused for 20 years and estimated the loss at $5,000.2 The same item said officers had forced a group, described as hippies, out of the Fish Canyon cabins as the fire approached, but did not link that group to the tower fire.2

The building was not rebuilt.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, and none says whether visitors can reach it. Anyone planning a trip into that part of the forest should check with the Angeles National Forest first.

  1. Pine Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/pine-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pine Mountain, Forest Lookouts (California Lookouts), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pine-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Pine Mountain Lookout
Pine Mountain LookoutPhoto: Chuck Hartley Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
March 29, 1934
March 29, 1934 (1934)Photo: Monrovia News Post, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
July 19, 1964
July 19, 1964 (1964)Photo: Los Angeles Times, 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, ownership, 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) 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.