Fire lookout · Monterey County, California
Sid Ormsbee Lookout
Also known as Sid Ormsbee (Pinyon Peak), Sid Ormsby
1948 lookout on a 30-foot enclosed tower on private Santa Lucia Preserve land, named for a WWII forester; visits need the Preserve's permission.
- Standing
- Permission required
- Verified
Permission required
You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. On private Santa Lucia Preserve land; access requires the Preserve's permission, and a locked gate guards the road.
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Reached over private Preserve land by permission only; do not climb without permission.
- Staffing
- Not staffed (as of 2011)
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Enclosed tower16 by 16 ft octagonal cab on a 30 ft enclosed tower (NHLR); a lookout history site names it an 809R observation cab on a 30 ft enclosed towerThe design: CDF 809R
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1948
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 2,253 ft (687 m)
- Agency
- Santa Lucia Preserve
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Monterey County, California
- Coordinates
- 36.48960, −121.78662
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-sid-ormsbee
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 3.0 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
- 1946 EventState announced the name for Sidney Ormsbee before the tower was builtSource: montereycountynow.com
- 1948 BuiltCompleted 1948; dedication covered by a July 1948 newspaperSources: nhlr.org, montereycountynow.com
- 1948 Replaced by a new structureReplaced an older lookout on nearby Mt. Toro, per a 1993 Cal Fire report; the article gives no year, so 1948 (the build year) is an inferenceSource: montereycountynow.com
- No record between 1948 and 2010
- 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 19, 2010 as US 883Source: nhlr.org
- 2012 AlteredMonterey County Planning Commission approved a telecommunications tower to be affixed to the lookout; construction not confirmedSource: montereycountynow.com
- 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.
Sid Ormsbee Lookout stands on Pinyon Peak, roughly 2,250 feet up, on private land inside the Santa Lucia Preserve in Monterey County.1,2 The state announced the name in 1946, while the tower was still unbuilt, and the lookout was completed in 1948.1,2 A July 1948 newspaper report covered its dedication.2 It honors Sidney Chase Ormsbee, a state forestry worker who became an Army Air Forces lieutenant and died in August 1943, when anti-aircraft fire brought down his plane off Cape Faro in Sicily.2
The register describes a 16-by-16-foot octagonal cab on a 30-foot enclosed tower.1 A lookout history site names the cab as an 809R observation cab on a 30-foot enclosed tower, a model name the register does not use.3 A 1993 Cal Fire report, as Monterey County Now relays it, says the new tower took the place of an older lookout on nearby Mt. Toro.2
Monterey County Now says the lookout was decommissioned sometime in the 1980s, though the exact year is unclear.2 A Peakbagging page, with a photo dated May 2011, says the tower is no longer used to watch for fires and is slated for preservation.4
The lookout went on the National Historic Lookout Register in June 2010 as US 883.1 Two years later, the Monterey County Planning Commission approved a non-commercial telecommunications tower to be affixed to the lookout, to help with emergency communications for firefighters in the Santa Lucia Mountains.2 The article does not say whether that equipment was installed.2
Today the tower stands on private land. The register says access is by permission only, and the Monterey County Now article says access requires permission from the Preserve.1,2 A locked gate sits on the road to the lookout.4 A plaque at its base honors Ormsbee.2 One explanation for the name, offered by the director of the Santa Lucia Conservancy, is that he spent his childhood living in an older lookout on the peak. The article says there does not appear to be evidence that he or his parents ever lived on the peak, and it sets the historical record against that account.2 Anyone who wants to see it should ask the Preserve first, and should not climb the tower without permission.
- Sid Ormsbee Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/sid-ormsbee-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- The history of Carmel Valley's long-retired fire lookout tower tells a World War II story, Monterey County Now, https://www.montereycountynow.com/people/831/the-history-of-carmel-valley-s-long-retired-fire-lookout-tower-tells-a-world-war/article_9fdeb950-6f78-11e8-b11e-cb085779ed95.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Pinyon Peak (Sid Ormsbee) - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pinyon-peak-sid-ormsbee.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Pinyon Peak Lookout, California, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/PinyonPk.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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 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, agency, access, staffing, 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 883 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Pinyon Peak (Sid Ormsbee) - FOREST LOOKOUTS (opens another site)
- The history of Carmel Valley's long-retired fire lookout tower tells a World War II story (Monterey County Now) (opens another site)
- Pinyon Peak Lookout, California (Peakbagging) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California-South chapter: Southern California lookouts (opens another site)
- New York Times article mentioning Sid Ormsbee Lookout (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 783460459 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.