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Fire lookout · San Diego County, California

Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site

Also known as Santa Margarita, Santa Margarita Peak

Cleveland NF tower site, San Diego Co.: CCC lookout built 1935, replaced 1965, heavily damaged in a 1988 Marine helicopter collision and removed.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The 1965 tower was heavily damaged in a 1988 collision with a Marine helicopter and removed.

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 tower1935: 30-ft steel K-brace tower with 14x14-ft live-in wood cab (CCC); 1965: 30-ft steel tower with 13x13-ft steel CL-104 cabThe designs: CL-100, C-3, L-1600 steel tower
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,502 ft (763 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
San Diego County, California
Coordinates
33.45678, −117.39739 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-santa-margarita-margarita-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 3.1 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 by the Civilian Conservation Corps: 30-ft steel K-brace tower with a 14x14-ft live-in wood cab.Sources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  2. 1938 StaffedA lookout is named in a 1938 California Ranger item quoted on Forest Lookouts.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1965
  4. 1965 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a Forest Service standard CL-104 lookout: 30-ft steel tower with a 13x13-ft steel cab.Sources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  5. 1969 FireDevil's Canyon fire surrounded the tower and burned a garage. Per a Eugene Register-Guard report quoted on Forest Lookouts, the tower did not burn.Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1969 and 1986
  7. 1986 FireThe 1965 lookout was burned over in a wildfire.Sources: firetower.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  8. 1988 DestroyedOn March 2, 1988 a Marine CH-46E helicopter collided with the tower. The San Diego chapter says it was destroyed; Forest Lookouts says it was heavily damaged and had to be removed.Sources: ffla-sandiego.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1988 and 2009
  10. 2009 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 17, 2009.Source: firetower.org
  11. 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 Santa Margarita lookout stood on Margarita Peak in the Cleveland National Forest, San Diego County, California.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built the first tower there in 1935: a 30-foot steel K-brace tower with a 14-by-14-foot live-in wood cab.1,2

The sources do not agree on the peak's elevation. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register gives 2,502 feet, while the San Diego chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association gives 3,189 feet.1,2 The chapter also says the peak sits on the north boundary of Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base.2

A 1938 item from the California Ranger, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, names a lookout, Charlton, on the peak.3 In 1969 a fire in Devil's Canyon surrounded the tower and burned a garage. The tower did not burn, according to a Eugene Register-Guard report quoted on the same page.3

In 1965 the Forest Service replaced the tower with a standard CL-104 lookout: a 30-foot steel tower with a 13-by-13-foot steel cab.1,2 Both sources say the 1965 lookout was burned over in a 1986 wildfire.1,2

On March 2, 1988, a Marine CH-46E helicopter on a training exercise collided with the tower. The four crew members escaped with minor injuries.3 The San Diego chapter says the collision destroyed the tower.2 The Forest Lookouts page says it was heavily damaged and had to be removed.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register recorded the site on February 17, 2009.1

The register now lists the place as a tower site, and none of the sources we read describe what remains on the peak, such as footings or a pad.1 We found no access rules. Because the peak sits beside a Marine base, check with the Cleveland National Forest and Camp Pendleton before you go.2 A California list on firelookout.org has a Santa Margarita entry in San Diego under NHLR number 1328.4 We could not open that register page, so we cannot tell whether it describes this lookout. If it does, it contradicts the 1988 loss reported above, and this story does not rely on it.

  1. Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/santa-margarita-margarita-peak-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Santa Margarita Peak, FFLA-SDRC, Forest Fire Lookout Association San Diego chapter, https://www.ffla-sandiego.org/fire-lookout/southern-california-towers/santa-margarita-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Santa Margarita, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/santa-margarita.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. California lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Crash (1988)
Crash (1988) (1988)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Brad Eells, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Brad Eells, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Brad Eells, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Brad Eells, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Santa Margarita (Margarita Peak) Tower Site
Photo: Brad Eells, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
April 28, 1934
April 28, 1934 (1934)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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

    • FFLA: 33.45678, −117.39739
    • FFLOS: 33.44442, −117.38333
    • FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter: 33.44442, −117.38333

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, county, elevation, 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: location, 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. FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, San Diego-Riverside Chapter (ffla-sandiego.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, designs, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the chapter's page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages 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
  6. 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

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