FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Riverside County, California

Thomas Mountain Lookout Site

A 60-foot steel fire tower on Thomas Mountain in the San Bernardino National Forest, built in the 1930s and scrapped in 1973; foundations and stonework remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin demolished and burned and tower dismantled and sold for scrap in 1973; the register says foundations, stone wall work and an access road 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 tower60-ft Aermotor open X-brace steel tower with a 7x7 observation cabin on top, and a BC-201 residence cabin for the operatorHouse: BC-201; tower: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1935
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
6,841 ft (2,085 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - San Bernardino National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Riverside County, California
Coordinates
33.61970, −116.68118
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-thomas-mountain

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 3.1 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. 1935 BuiltRegister and Wikipedia: 60-foot Aermotor steel tower with a 7x7 observation cabin and a BC-201 residence cabinSources: firetower.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1936 EventA ranger outpost and an AWS ground observer station stood nearby, 1936-45 (Hundred Peaks)Source: hundredpeaks.org
  3. 1938 BuiltHundred Peaks dates a 60-foot tower with a 7x7 metal cab to 1938; this conflicts with the 1935 dateSource: hundredpeaks.org
  4. No record between 1938 and 1973
  5. 1973 RemovedTower dismantled and sold for scrap after fire and vandalism; cabin demolished and burnedSources: firetower.org, en.wikipedia.org
  6. No record between 1973 and 2019
  7. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: December 1, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 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.

Thomas Mountain Lookout stood on the 6,841-foot summit of Thomas Mountain, in Riverside County, within the San Bernardino National Forest.1 The register says it was built in 1935 as a 60-foot Aermotor steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot observation cabin on top, and a BC-201 cabin for the operator. It lists the US Forest Service as the administering agency.1 Wikipedia also gives 1935 and says the tower was used as a plane-spotting post during World War II.2 Hundred Peaks describes a 60-foot tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab and dates it to 1938, so the sources do not agree on the build year.3

Hundred Peaks says a ranger outpost and an AWS ground observer station stood nearby from 1936 to 1945.3

Fire and vandalism damaged the site.2 According to the register, the cabin was torn down and burned, and the tower was sold for scrap in 1973 once vandals had badly damaged the structures.1 Wikipedia gives the same 1973 date for the scrapping.2

A 2018 photo caption in the register describes foundations and stonework as visible.1 The register also lists the residence cabin foundation, stone walls and access road as still in place.1 Hundred Peaks, by contrast, reports that only the foundation slabs are left.3 The register names the San Jacinto Ranger District as a cooperator.1 I found no source that says whether the summit is open to visitors now, so check with that district before you go.

  1. Thomas Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/thomas-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Thomas Mountain (Riverside County), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mountain_(Riverside_County) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Thomas Mountain, Hundred Peaks, https://hundredpeaks.org/?p=16862 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Thomas Mountain Lookout - 1938
Thomas Mountain Lookout - 1938 (1938)Photo: National Archives, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Foundations and stone work visible - 2018
Foundations and stone work visible - 2018 (2018)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Thomas Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1939 Newspaper Article
1939 Newspaper Article (1939)Photo: San Bernardino Sun, 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 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
  4. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.