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Fire lookout · Los Angeles County, California

Reservoir Summit Lookout Site

Los Angeles County lookout tower built 1935 to replace a 1932 guard-station lookout; abandoned by 1947 over smog; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register list shows Gone; removal date unknown; 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 lookout on a 10-foot open timber towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,976 ft (1,212 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Angeles National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates
34.66230, −118.72941
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-reservoir-summit

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 2.9 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. 1932 EventGuard station building built for double duty as a lookout site; the reminiscence describes a crew of eight at the stationSource: firetower.org
  2. 1935 BuiltLookout built on a 10-foot open timber tower; replaced the earlier guard-station buildingSource: firetower.org
  3. 1947 AbandonedAbandoned by 1947 due to increasing smog, per the registerSource: firetower.org
  4. No record between 1947 and 2020
  5. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 11, 2020; nominated by Brad EellsSource: firetower.org
  6. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Reservoir Summit lies in Los Angeles County, with the old Ridge Route highway to its east and today's Interstate 5 and Pyramid Lake to its west.1 The road passes many historical landmarks, and Reservoir Summit is one of them.2

Before the tower, a guard station there was built in 1932 and doubled as a lookout site.1 An account paraphrased on the register page describes a Forest Service station with eight crew members, the cook included, and a new fire truck.1 The lookout that followed was a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 design on a 10-foot open timber tower, built in 1935.1

According to the same account, the crew left oily rags on a wooden floor they had treated with linseed oil, and the rags' spontaneous combustion burned the whole station, which was never rebuilt.1 The register says the 1935 tower replaced it.1 The register also says Reservoir Summit was abandoned by 1947 because of growing smog, and it gives no removal date.1 A lookout guide says most lookouts in the Angeles forest were removed for several reasons, including smog.3

The register added the site on March 11, 2020, on the nomination of Brad Eells.1

The register does not say what, if anything, remains today.1 A Ridge Route gallery describes the area above the road as a bare clearing where a campground once stood, along with a reservoir, but it does not mention the lookout.4 The Forest Service has closed much of the old road.2 We found no source that says whether the site itself is open to the public, so check with the Angeles National Forest before going.

  1. Reservoir Summit Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/reservoir-summit-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ridge Route, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_Route (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookouts, Angeles Adventures, https://angelesadventures.com/home/lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Old Ridge Route, Ridge Route Gallery, https://www.ridgeroutegallery.com/old-ridge-route (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Reservoir Summit Lookout
Reservoir Summit LookoutPhoto: Jack Rimmer, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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. 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.