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Fire lookout · Del Norte County, California

Ship Mountain (old)

Ship Mountain (old), Del Norte County: a 1914-1922 lookout site with a timber tower, later a trailer; FFLA lists it gone, and a 2008 cab stands about 0.9 km south.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FFLA lists the old site as ground and gone; the trailer was removed in 2007; FFLA lists a two-story cab built 2008 about 0.9 km south on peak 4

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 cabTimber tower with a Region 5 Plan 4AR cab (circa 1922), later a portable trailerThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1922
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
US Forest Service, Six Rivers National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Del Norte County, California
Coordinates
41.73560, −123.79298
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-ship-mountain-old

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 3.8 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. 1914 First staffedA guard was preparing to take up a station on Ship Mountain (July 1914 item, Siskiyou Bulletin, quoted by Forest Lookouts); the register says a lookout may have been there as early as 1914Sources: californialookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  2. 1915 EventTelephone line connecting the Ship Mountain lookout completed June 30, 1915Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1922 BuiltTimber tower with a Region 5 Plan 4AR cab erected circa 1922 (register); a 1939 forest history says a standard lookout cabin was packed 26 miles in and constructed in 1922Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1922 StaffedAl Gastman took over the lookout station in August 1922 (Blue Lake Advocate, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1924 FireSeptember 1924 lightning storm set many fires in the Siskiyou and Klamath forests; one Ship Mountain lookout reported lightning in 2648 places in his territory that night (Spokane Daily Chronicle, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1924 StaffedMilton Kingsley to hold the lookout position in June 1924, after two years under Gastman (Blue Lake Advocate, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1924 and 1943
  8. 1943 EventAWS Station Mike 8-1 placed on inactive status October 17, 1943; AWS had added sleeping quarters to the siteSources: californialookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  9. No record between 1943 and 1973
  10. 1973 Replaced by a new structurePortable trailer lookout in use at the site since 1973 (FFLA Western Region 2008 report); the register dates the trailer to the 1960sSources: firelookout.org, nhlr.org
  11. No record between 1973 and 2007
  12. 2007 RemovedPortable lookout trailer removed and the road to the summit improved (Forest Lookouts)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  13. 2008 BuiltNew two-story lookout station constructed in 2008 (Forest Lookouts; register); FFLA lists a two-story cab on peak 4, about 0.9 km south-southwest of the old siteSources: californialookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  14. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The earliest item on the Forest Lookouts page is from July 1914, when a guard was preparing to take up a station on Ship Mountain.1 The register says a lookout may have been there as early as 1914.2 A telephone line reached the lookout in June 1915.1

Around 1922 a timber tower with a Region 5 Plan 4AR cab went up.2 A 1939 forest history says a standard cabin design was hauled 26 miles in and put up in 1922.1 Survey notes from 1941 and 1952 describe a two-story wooden lookout house on the peak.1

The Blue Lake Advocate named Al Gastman as lookout in August 1922 and Milton Kingsley as his successor in June 1924.1 In September 1924 a lightning storm set many fires across the Siskiyou and Klamath forests, and one lookout on Ship Mountain reported lightning in 2,648 places in his territory that night.1

During the Second World War the peak served as Aircraft Warning Service Station 'Mike 8-1'.2 The Forest Lookouts page notes that AWS added sleeping quarters to the site, and that the station was placed on inactive status on October 17, 1943.1

The timber tower was later replaced by a portable trailer lookout.2 The register dates that change to the 1960s, while a Forest Fire Lookout Association report on 2008 work says the trailer had been used at the site since 1973.2,3 The trailer was removed in 2007 and the road to the top was improved.1 A new two-story station went up in 2008.1

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's California list marks the older spot as "Ship Mountain (old)", a ground site that is gone.4 The register's coordinates for the lookout match that old spot, but the list places the standing two-story cab about 0.9 km south-southwest of it.2,4 A note on the Coast and Geodetic Survey datasheet, quoted by Forest Lookouts, says the current house stands on peak 4, the southernmost of the four.1 The 1941 station sat on peak 3.1 I found no source describing remains at the old spot, or saying whether the peak is open to visitors. The register places the site in the Six Rivers National Forest and lists the US Forest Service as administrator.2

  1. Ship Mountain, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/ship-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ship Mountain (Four Brothers) Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/ship-mountain-four-brothers-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Western Region Annual Report 2008, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-wdep-2008.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. California Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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.