FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tuolumne County, California

Woods Ridge Lookout

CCC-built 1939 Aermotor lookout in Stanislaus National Forest; not staffed since the 1970s and not in use as of 2017; no current access or rental found.

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
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor tower with 7x7-foot cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1913
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
6,014 ft (1,833 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Stanislaus National Forest, Groveland Ranger District
Land
Federal land
Location
Tuolumne County, California
Coordinates
37.95910, −119.96891
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-woods-ridge

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 3.4 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. 1913 BuiltForest Service crow's nest at the top of a 100-foot yellow pine donated by West Side Lumber Co.Source: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1913 and 1939
  3. 1939 BuiltBuilt by the CCC: 100-foot Aermotor tower with 7x7-foot cab; replaced the 1913 treetop lookoutSources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
  4. 1943 EventPhoto caption in NHLR entry dates a residence cabin (BC-201) to 1943Source: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1943 and 1962
  6. 1962 StaffedWoman took a summer job and was hired as a fire lookout, June 1962, per an Oakdale newspaper quoted on the Forest Lookouts siteSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1970 Last staffedNot staffed since the 1970s (year is approximate; sources give the decade only)Sources: nhlr.org, peakbagging.com
  8. No record between 1970 and 2017
  9. 2017 Condition assessmentNHLR: as of 2017 the tower is standing but not in useSource: nhlr.org
  10. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2017 as US 1187, CA 118; nominated by Bill LuedekeSource: nhlr.org
  11. 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.

Woods Ridge Lookout is a 100-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, in the Groveland Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, California.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1939.1,2

It replaced a treetop lookout the Forest Service set up in 1913, which sat atop a 100-foot yellow pine that the West Side Lumber Co. had donated.1 The register says a residence and garage stand at the site, and a photo caption in its entry dates a residence cabin to 1943.1

In June 1962 a woman took a summer job as a fire lookout.3 The Forest Lookouts site quotes an Oakdale newspaper describing her cleaning up quarters that had sat empty for several seasons.3 The register says the tower has not been staffed since the 1970s, and a 2011 photo note on Peakbagging says the same.1,2

As of 2017 the register described the tower as standing but not in use.1 The tower was registered on April 24, 2017, as US 1187, CA 118, with Bill Luedeke as nominator.1

The sources read do not describe current access or mention a rental for the tower.1,3,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association says its listed rentals are managed through Recreation.gov unless noted otherwise, and its rental list does not show Woods Ridge.4 The tower sits on Forest Service land and was not in use in 2017, so its current status is unclear from these sources.1

  1. Woods Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/woods-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Woods Ridge Lookout, California, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/WoodsRidge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Woods Ridge, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/woods-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Lookout Rentals, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/resources/rentals/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Woods Ridge Lookout
Photo: Bill Luedeke, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
100 foot tree platform - 1938
100 foot tree platform - 1938 (1938)Photo: Stanislaus National Forest Archive - Les Cuff, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
BC-201 Residence Cabin - 1943
BC-201 Residence Cabin - 1943 (1943)Photo: Stanislaus National Forest Archive, 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) 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.