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Fire lookout · Riverside County, California

Sierra Peak Lookout Site

Riverside County, CA: a 1934-design BC-201 lookout station building, not a tower; likely mid-1930s; now gone; the peak is a communications site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the station is now gone; no removal date given

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 cabBC-201 Forest Fireman Lookout Station, Region 5 1934 design: 19x30 ft wood frame building with a 270-degree glassed lookout roomThe design: BC-201
Built of
Wood
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,045 ft (928 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Riverside County, California
Coordinates
33.85223, −117.67275 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-sierra-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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 22, 2011 as US 853, CA 12Source: firetower.org
  2. 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.

Sierra Peak sits in Cleveland National Forest in Riverside County, California, at 928 meters (3,045 feet).1 The record says no primary lookout was ever built on the summit.1 What stood here was a Region 5 design from 1934, the BC-201 "Forest Fireman Lookout Station," a 19-by-30-foot wood frame building with a glassed room that gave a 270-degree view, plus a kitchen, a bedroom and an enclosed porch.1

BC-201 stations were built at secondary sites, or used as guard stations and residence cabins for towers that only observed.1 The record says this one was likely put up in the mid-1930s, along with many other lookouts in the area that the Civilian Conservation Corps built for the Forest Service in 1935 to 1937.1

The record lists the station as now gone.1 The site was added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on February 22, 2011, as US 853, CA 12.1

Today the peak serves as a major communications site, alongside nearby Santiago Peak, which the record calls "Talking Mountain."1 We found no source describing what remains at the lookout spot, and nothing we read says whether the summit is open to visitors.

  1. Sierra Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/sierra-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Photo of Sierra Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1940
1940 (1940)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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 1.8 km (1.1 mi).

    • FFLOS: 33.85223, −117.67275
    • FFLA: 33.85028, −117.65361

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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.