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Fire lookout · Shasta County, California

Prospect Peak Lookout Site

Prospect Peak lookout, Lassen Volcanic NP, Shasta County: built c.1912, cabin flown off by helicopter in 1981; whereabouts unknown.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cabin was flown off the peak by helicopter in 1981 and taken to Manzanita Lake; the register says its current status and whereabouts are unknown.

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
Ground-level cabCalifornia Region 5 Plan 4AThe design: Plan 4-A
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1912
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,347 ft (2,544 m)
Agency
National Park Service, Lassen Volcanic National Park
Land
Federal land
Location
Shasta County, California
Coordinates
40.57328, −121.34594
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-prospect-peak

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 3.3 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. 1912 BuiltRegister: constructed in 1912 as a California Region 5 Plan 4A. The 1981 article repeats the 1912 date from park research.Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1912 and 1978
  3. 1978 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1978 (Wikipedia).Source: en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1981 RemovedCabin flown from the peak by helicopter to Manzanita Lake on July 21, 1981 (per the 1981 article), for a restoration the register says did not take place.Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1981 and 2020
  6. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 15, 2020, nominated by Brad Eells.Source: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Prospect Peak lookout stood on the peak of the same name in what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park, in Shasta County, California, at 8,347 feet (2,544 meters).1 The register dates the cabin to 1912 and calls it a California Region 5 Plan 4A design.1 A 1981 Lassen County Times article, reprinted on a lookout history site, gives the same date from park research and says lookouts were preassembled in Red Bluff, then taken apart and packed onto mules.2 The two accounts disagree on where the mule trip began.1,2 The register says Blue Lake, and the article says Butte Lake.1,2

In July 1981 the cabin was flown off the peak by helicopter and taken to Manzanita Lake, where the park planned to restore it as a display.1,2 The article dates the flight to July 21.2 The restoration never happened, according to the register.1 Some time in the early 2000s the cabin was moved to the San Bernardino National Forest.1 The register says the cabin was dismantled, trucked to a storage site on the Forest, and set to be put back together on the tower at Cajon Mountain.1 The Forest then decided to tear that tower down, and the plan was dropped.1

The register says the cabin's present condition and location are not known.1 Wikipedia tells a different story.3 Its article places the lookout on Prospect Peak and calls it otherwise intact, citing a nomination form dated June 16, 1977, four years before the helicopter flight described above.3,2 Wikipedia also gives the date the site joined the National Register as March 30, 1978.3 We have given more weight to the register and the 1981 article, which are more specific.

The register does not say what, if anything, is left on the summit today.1 The register names the National Park Service as the administrator of the site.1

  1. Prospect Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/prospect-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Prospect Peak, Forest Lookouts (California Lookouts), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/prospect-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Prospect Peak Fire Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Peak_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Prospect Peak Lookout at Manzanita Lake - 1998
Prospect Peak Lookout at Manzanita Lake - 1998 (1998)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
September 9, 1981
September 9, 1981 (1981)Photo: Lassen County 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) 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.