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Fire lookout · Shasta County, California

Sugarloaf Lookout

Also known as Sugarloaf Lockout, Sugar Loaf Mountain

Shasta County cabin on an 8 ft concrete tower, built 1931 on Sugar Loaf Mountain; staffed in the 1930s-40s, closed in 1954, listed as standing today.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingCalifornia Region 5 Plan 4AR cabin on an 8 ft concrete towerThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,944 ft (1,202 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shasta County, California
Coordinates
40.91444, −122.44491
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-sugarloaf

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 3.5 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. 1931 BuiltRegister 'Built' field: 1931Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1932 EventForest road crew moved to Doney Creek; a new road from the state highway to the lookout was to be builtSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 First staffedClyde Norman accepted a lookout post; earliest staffing in the sources readSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 StaffedLookout Harold D. Lenros and wife living at the station with their small sonSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1944 FireFire north of Lamoine, about one acre, held by a Pollard crewSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1944 StaffedMildred Jackson on duty, with her daughter, a cat and a dogSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1954 ClosedClipping dated Nov 11, 1954 says the Forest Service closed it; it calls it the last of four Shasta-Trinity lookouts reopened the month beforeSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1954 and 2019
  9. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered on NHLR page: October 27, 2019Source: nhlr.org
  10. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Sugarloaf Lookout stands on Sugar Loaf Mountain in Shasta County, California, on land the U.S. Forest Service manages as part of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.1,2 The register gives its elevation as 3,944 feet (1,202 meters) and describes a California Region 5 Plan 4AR cabin perched on a concrete tower eight feet high.1

The register dates the cabin to 1931.1 In November 1932 a forest road crew was moved to Doney Creek, where a new road was to be built from the state highway up to the lookout.2

Staffing shows up in clippings from the Dunsmuir News, copied on the Kemnow site. Clyde Norman took a lookout post in 1935.2 By 1941 the paper described lookout Harold D. Lenros and his wife living at the station with their small son.2 In July 1944 Mildred Jackson of San Francisco was on duty, with her daughter, a cat and a dog for company.2 That September the paper said she was the first to report a one-acre fire north of Lamoine, and that a Pollard crew stopped it at that size.2

The Forest Service closed the lookout in November 1954. It had been one of four Shasta-Trinity lookouts reopened the month before because of warm weather, and the paper called Sugar Loaf the last of the four.2 The sources I read do not say whether anyone staffed it again.2

Today the FFLA California list shows the lookout as standing, and the register still lists it.3,1 The register's photo list includes a 2019 picture.1 I did not find a current access or rental notice in the sources I checked, so anyone planning a visit should contact the Forest Service first.

  1. Sugarloaf Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/sugarloaf-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Sugarloaf - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/sugarloaf.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. California Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Sugarloaf Lookout - 2009
Sugarloaf Lookout - 2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2019
2019 (2019)Photo: Christin Agresta, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2017
2017 (2017)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2005
2005 (2005)Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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
  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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links 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, 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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