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Fire lookout · Tehama County, California

Turner Mountain Lookout

Lassen NF lookout: 1913 ten-foot house, 1934 Aermotor cab on a 60-ft steel tower, lookouts and a 1914 eruption report; listed standing; public visiting rules not in sources.

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
Trail
No source read says whether the public may visit or climb the tower today
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor 7x7 observation cab atop a 60-foot steel tower, plus a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 ground cabin (NHLR)Cab: BC-301; tower: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1913
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
6,900 ft (2,103 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Lassen National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Tehama County, California
Coordinates
40.29893, −121.61693
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-turner-mountain

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.

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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. 1913 BuiltThree 10-by-10 lookout houses built on the Lassen National Forest; one for Turner or Bald MountainSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1914 EventLookout counted seventeen balls of fire as Lassen Peak erupted, per 1914 newspapers; NHLR text prints the year as 1014Sources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1915 AlteredSupervisor began installing a summit water tank, to be filled with melting snow (October 1915)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1915 StaffedJ.M. Stark was lookout; A.E. McDonnell had taken over by late September 1915Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1922 EventThe old water tank was crushed flat by heavy snow, found in summer 1922Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1930 EventCrew found a spring under the rock supplying about 20 gallons a daySource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1934 BuiltAermotor 7x7 observation cab on a 60-foot steel tower constructedSource: nhlr.org
  8. 1937 FireLookout Oscar Edwall spotted smoke at 1:14 a.m. on July 3; Mineral crew called out and left within a minuteSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1937 AlteredTower remodeled and painted in August by the lookout and an ERA foreman (Lide Barber), with new windows; the Susanville paper gives its height as 65 feetSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1937 and 2002
  11. 2002 Condition assessmentPhoto caption dated July 3, 2002: calls one lookout the new and active one and labels another photo as the old towerSource: peakbagging.com
  12. No record between 2002 and 2019
  13. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 28, 2019 as US 1365, CA 188Source: nhlr.org
  14. 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.

Turner Mountain is a lookout in Tehama County, on the Lassen National Forest.1 The peak stands about 6,900 feet high, and the Forest Service administers the site.2,1

The first structure on the summit was a 10-by-10 lookout house.2,1 In 1913 three of these were built on the Lassen forest.1 They were first put together to plan, then taken down, bundled and marked, and hauled toward the site.1 The one for Turner or Bald Mountain came with a stove, a fold-up bed, a table and a telephone.1 In 1934 an Aermotor observation cab, 7 by 7, was built atop a steel tower of about 60 feet.2 A second, ground-level cabin of a standard Region 5 plan is also listed, but the register gives no date for it.2

The lookout was in use early.1 In late September 1914 a lookout there counted seventeen balls of fire when Lassen Peak began to erupt, according to newspapers of the day.1 The register prints that date with the wrong year.2 By late September 1915, A.E. McDonnell had taken over from J.M. Stark as lookout.1

Water was a steady problem.1 In October 1915 a supervisor began installing a summit water tank, to be filled with melting snow.1 Heavy snow later crushed it. By 1930 the crew had found a spring under the rock that gave about 20 gallons a day.1

On July 3, 1937, lookout Oscar Edwall spotted smoke at 1:14 in the morning, and a crew from Mineral was on the way within a minute.1 That August the lookout and an ERA foreman remodeled and painted the tower and put in new windows, and the Susanville paper gave its height as 65 feet.1 The register says 60 feet, so the height is not settled.2,1

A 2002 photo caption calls one view the new and active lookout and labels another photo as the old tower, but the captions do not say when the change came.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's California list still marks the tower and its ground cabin as standing.4

Today the register lists two lookout structures on the site.2 The sources read do not say whether the public may visit or climb the tower. Check with the Lassen National Forest before going, and do not climb a tower that is closed.

  1. Turner Mountain, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/turner-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Turner Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/turner-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Turner Mountain Lookout, Peakbagging (peakbagging.com), http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/TurnerMtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. California lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ca/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Turner Mountain Lookout - 2002
Turner Mountain Lookout - 2002 (2002)Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Aermotor 7x7 cab on a 60 foot tower - built 1934
Aermotor 7x7 cab on a 60 foot tower - built 1934 (1934)Photo: Fred Johnson, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2010
2010 (2010)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1999
1999 (1999)Photo: Mark Swift Collection, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Turner Mountain Lookout
Photo: Mark Swift Collection, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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, 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

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