Fire lookout · Los Angeles County, California
San Rafael (Cerro Negro) Lookout
Also known as San Rafael
San Rafael (Cerro Negro) Lookout in Cherry Canyon Park: 1934 county cab on a 30-ft K-brace tower, handed to Glendale for radio use in 1960; now a fenced, non-public communications site.
- Standing
- Closed
- Verified
Closed
The site is closed to visitors. Fenced working communications facility; the Register says it is not open to the public. Trails in Cherry Canyon Park may reach the area.
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- The Register says the site is fenced and not open to the public. Trails in Cherry Canyon Park may lead near it.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerStandard L-4 14x14 cab (the Register says it appears to be standard) on a 30-foot steel K-brace tower; exterior paneling and asphalt roofing added; Chrysler Victory air raid siren on a short steel tower nearbyThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- 1,893 ft (577 m)
- Agency
- City of La Canada Flintridge (built for the Los Angeles County Fire Department)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Los Angeles County, California
- Coordinates
- 34.18748, −118.20798
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-san-rafael-cerro-negro
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 3.3 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
- 1934 BuiltConstructed for the Los Angeles County Fire Department in 1934; a November 1934 item says a new lookout was under construction on San Rafael peak to replace a temporary stationSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
- 1945 AlteredCounty annual report: fence installed to protect radio equipment, and a power line extended to the site for the radio apparatus and domestic useSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1945 and 1960
- 1960 EventRegister says the county turned the lookout over to the Glendale City Fire Department for use as a communications site; a December 1960 item describes a county license for Glendale to install a radio receiver on the county-owned site, with a Civil Defense siren to remain operableSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1960 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered on the National Historic Lookout Register: June 28, 2017Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
San Rafael Lookout, now called Cerro Negro Lookout, stands in Cherry Canyon Park in Los Angeles County.1 The Los Angeles County Fire Department had it constructed in 1934.1 A county annual report from June 1934 says towers went up on Verdugo and West San Rafael Peaks, and a November 1934 newspaper item says a new lookout on San Rafael peak was going up to replace a temporary station used during the previous fire season.2
The Register says the lookout appears to be a standard L-4 design, with a 14-by-14-foot cab on a 30-foot steel K-brace tower.1 Its walls and windows have since been covered with exterior paneling, and asphalt roofing has replaced the wood shakes.1 A Chrysler Victory air raid siren stands nearby on a short steel tower.1
The sources I read name no fires the lookout watched and no staff who worked in it. The county ran the lookout for 26 years.1
A county annual report for the year ending June 1945 says the site got a fence to protect its radio equipment and a power line to run it.2 In 1960, according to the Register, the county handed the lookout to the Glendale City Fire Department for communications use.1 A December 1960 newspaper item, quoting a county supervisor, describes a license for Glendale to install a radio receiver on the county-owned site, and says a Civil Defense siren will remain operable under county and federal control.2 The Register's wording suggests a handover, but the newspaper's account is more specific.1,2
Today the Register describes a fenced, working communications site, now managed by the City of La Canada Flintridge.1 Trails in Cherry Canyon Park may reach the area, but the site itself is closed to the public.1 The Register listed the site on June 28, 2017.1
- San Rafael (Cerro Negro) Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/san-rafael-cerro-negro-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- San Rafael, Forest Lookouts, California Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/san-rafael.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages (opens another site) Gave us: register numbers, links FFLA chapters and Friends groups (each link names the group) · Links to the groups' own pages; facts only from the California-South chapter's tower table (register page, operator, condition). No text or photos reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1220 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California-South chapter: Southern California lookouts (opens another site)
- San Rafael (Cerro Negro) Lookout - Forest Lookouts Page (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.