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Fire lookout · Lake County, California

Potato Hill Lookout Site

Mendocino NF lookout in Lake County built 1935 as a Region 5 BC-301 cabin on an enclosed timber tower; removal date unknown, only the foundation remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removal date unknown; the register says only the foundation remains

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 towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on an enclosed timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,417 ft (1,346 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Mendocino National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, California
Coordinates
39.35267, −122.80397
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-potato-hill

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 3.2 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 BuiltBuilt 1935 per the register's Built field and its 1935 photo captionSource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 2020
  3. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 1, 2020 as US 1903, CA 98; nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  4. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Potato Hill, in Lake County within the Mendocino National Forest, got a lookout in 1935.1 Its cabin followed a California Region 5 plan, numbered BC-301, and sat on an enclosed timber tower.1 A photograph of the lookout from 1935 is credited to the Upper Lake Ranger District collection.1 The Forest Service administered the site.1 The register gives the site's elevation as 4,417 feet, or 1,346 meters, and lists it as US 1903, CA 98.1

The site joined the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on February 1, 2020, on the nomination of Brad Eells.1 The register gives no removal date, and only the foundation is left.1

No source describes the site now, so this record cannot say what the foundation looks like today or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Potato Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/potato-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Potato Hill Lookout - 1935
Potato Hill Lookout - 1935 (1935)Photo: Upper Lake Ranger District Collection, 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) 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.