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Fire lookout · Monterey County, California

Ventana Double Cone Lookout Site

Monterey County ground-cabin lookout built 1935-36 by the CCC on Ventana Double Cone; burned 1976-77; no fetched source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in 1976 or 1977; no fetched source describes what remains

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 cab14x14 ground cabin on a rock foundation, California Region 5 Plan BC-301The design: BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,820 ft (1,469 m)
Agency
Los Padres National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Monterey County, California
Coordinates
36.29695, −121.71500
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-ventana-double-cone

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.

Downloads about 3.3 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 BuiltBuilt 1935/36 by the CCC as a 14x14 ground cabin on a rock foundationSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 EventNewspaper report of May 16, 1936 on construction; station to be the fifth radio or telephone lookout for the Monterey divisionSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1942 AlteredMaterials for an Aircraft Warning Service cabin packed in by mulesSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 StaffedAWS residence cabin added; lookout staffed 24 hours a day by a pair of operatorsSource: firetower.org
  5. No record between 1943 and 1960
  6. 1960 Last staffedLast staffed in the 1960s (record gives decade only; year shown is the decade start)Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1960 and 1976
  8. 1976 BurnedBurned under mysterious circumstances in 1976 or 77 (FFLOS); burned by vandals in 1976-77 (Forest Lookouts, citing Reaves)Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1976 and 2019
  10. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: December 22, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

The Ventana Double Cone lookout stood in the Santa Lucia range, behind the Big Sur region, in Monterey County.1 In May 1936 a newspaper reported that the new station would be the fifth radio- or telephone-equipped lookout protecting the Monterey division of the Santa Barbara national forest.1 Civilian Conservation Corps crews built a 14-by-14 ground cabin atop a rock base over 1935 and 1936.1 The Firetower record agrees on the build years and places the cabin under California Region 5 plan BC-301.2

In 1942 mules packed in materials for an Aircraft Warning Service cabin, according to the Forest Lookouts page.1 The Firetower record dates that cabin to 1943, when a pair of operators staffed the lookout around the clock.2 It says the last staffing came in the 1960s.2

The lookout burned in 1976 or 1977.2,1 The Firetower record says it burned "under mysterious circumstances," while the Forest Lookouts page says vandals burned it. The two accounts agree on the years but not the cause.2,1

No source I could read describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout on the summit today. None says whether visitors may go there.2,1

  1. Ventana Double Cone, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/ventana-double-cone.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Ventana Double Cone Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/ventana-double-cone-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Ventana Double Cone Lookout
Ventana Double Cone Lookout (1988)Photo: "Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest" By Irma Oksen Reaves - 1988, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Ventana Double Cone Lookout Site, 1988
(1988)Photo: "Lookouts of the Los Padres Forest" By Irma Oksen Reaves - 1988, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, wartime use, 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, 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.