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Fire lookout · El Dorado County, California

Slate Mountain Lookout Site

Eldorado lookout on Slate Mountain: 1935 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 20-foot steel tower, lookouts named from 1914 to 1935, removed in 2003; only tower piers remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 2003 per the 2012 chapter report; the register gives the removal date as unknown and says only the tower piers remain

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 towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 20 foot H-brace open steel tower; a garage was also built on siteThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1935
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
3,894 ft (1,187 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Eldorado National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
El Dorado County, California
Coordinates
38.82346, −120.68450
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-slate-mountain-2

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.6 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 StaffedG.H. Morton assigned to the lookout post on Slate MountainSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1916 StaffedGeorge H. Morton of Mosquito was set to go to the Slate Mountain station (June 1, 1916 notice)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1926 StaffedAllen Hughes returned from the Slate Mountain lookout stationSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1930 StaffedWillard Greenslate became lookout after Dale Rasor was transferred away (August 1930)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1935 BuiltFFLOS says the cabin on its 20-foot steel tower was constructed in 1935Source: firetower.org
  6. 1935 StaffedDale Rasor described as the Forest Service lookout at Slate Mountain (September 1935)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1935 and 2003
  8. 2003 Removed2012 chapter report lists Slate Mountain as removed in 2003 (Georgetown Ranger District); FFLOS gives the removal date as unknownSources: firelookout.org, firetower.org
  9. No record between 2003 and 2020
  10. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with FFLOS on January 29, 2020 as US 1893, CA 88Source: 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.

Slate Mountain stands in the Eldorado National Forest in El Dorado County, at 1,187 meters.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the lookout was constructed in 1935 as a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin on a 20-foot H-brace open steel tower, with a garage built on site.1 Newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts site show a lookout post on the mountain before that. In 1914 G.H. Morton was assigned to the post, so the 1935 date seems to mark the cabin rather than the first lookout.2

In 1916 George H. Morton was set to go to the Slate Mountain station, and in 1926 Allen Hughes returned from the lookout station there.2 In August 1930 Willard Greenslate became lookout after Dale Rasor was transferred away, but a September 1935 item again calls Dale Rasor the Forest Service lookout at Slate Mountain.2

The sources disagree on when the lookout came down. The register gives the removal date as unknown.1 The 2012 annual report of the California-Sierra and Nevada chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists Slate Mountain under the Eldorado National Forest as removed in 2003.3 The association's California list marks the site as gone.4

Today the register says just the tower piers are left, on ground now used for electronic communications.1 We found no source that describes public access to the site.

  1. Slate Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/slate-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Slate Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/slate-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. California - Sierra and Nevada Chapter 2012 Annual Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-ca-sn-nevada-2012.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. California Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Slate Mountain Lookout
Slate Mountain LookoutPhoto: Rex Kamstra, 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.

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. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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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