PLUMAS COUNTY
PILOT PEAK
Plumas National Forest
August 14, 1916: "A new fire outlook station is being built on Pilot peak, above Onion valley, and this will be connected by telephone with the Howl;and Flat line. The lookout station on Mt. Fillmore has been abandoned as a much better view of the Middle Fork slope can be secured from Pilot peak." (Sacramento Union)
August 28, 1917: "Reports received in Oroville yesterday tell of the narrow escape from electrocution of Samuel Grambois, lookout man for the Forest Service on Pilot Peak near La Porte. Grambois came near to death last Friday in one of the worst electrical storms that Plumas and Sierra Counties have known.
When the storm started Grambois threw the switch off of the telephone. Despite that precaution, however, a stroke of lightning struck into the lookout house, and hit Grambois' rifle, which was laying on the table. It tore the stock of the rifle into splinters, and threw the butt plate out through the glass door with the force of a 30-30 bullet under action. Grambois later found the metal plate one hundred feet away from the house.
The lightning burned the fuse out of the telephone line, but after the storm had passed Grambois patched up the system, and reported in ten forest fires that had been started by the lightning.
Through the efficiency of the Forest Service fire protective organization, District Forest Ranger William Hayes of La Porte and his assistants soon had men out fighting all of the fires, and they were under control before they had time to do extensive damage.
The storm started in the neighborhood of the Downieville Buttes near Downieville and followed the high mountain ranges southwest over Mt. Fillmore and Pilot Peak, where it took a more northerly course and went out toward Quincy and the American Valley." (Oroville Daily Register)
August 21, 1924: "Ranger Hayes escorted a new lookout to Pilot Peak, Sunday, to relieve Earl McCall, who has been quite ill." (The Plumas National-Bulletin)
November 3, 1927: "Tom Gray returned from the Pilot Peak lookout station, near Onion Valley the last week, where he has been on the mountain all summer on the lookout for fires in the Plumas forest." (Plumas Independent)
August 3, 1933: "The electric storm last week in Southern Plumas started four fires. The Onion Valley Lookout reported that out of 22 flashes of lightning, 18 struck the earth, starting only the fires reported." (Plumas Independent)
September 10, 1936: "G,E. Clark, look-out man at the Pilot Peak station, came to town on Friday evening to spend the week end here with his family. Heavy rains that visited that section, together with a snow fall at the station, made the duties of the lookout comparatively light, so the brief lay-off was permitted." (Plumas Independent)
June 22, 1939: "Mrs. Pike Boehm and Dick O'Rourke made a trip to Pilot Peak Monday, taking the new lookout, John Carnegie, in. Carnegie graduated from Oregon State College this year." (Feather River Bulletin)
September 19, 1940: "Bob Jensen, fire lookout on Pilot Peak this summer, left for Oakland Friday and will attend the winter term at University of California." (Feather River Bulletin)
October 8, 1942: "Joe Miguel who spent the summer on Pilot Peak as a Forest Service Lookout moved down to Pike County Peak Monday to replace one of the lookouts there who had been taken ill." (Plumas Independent)
August 26, 1943: "Mignon Hyman, on Pilot Peak, comes from Sacramento. Mrs. Hyman gets her water from a nearby snowbank," (Feather River Bulletin)
April 29, 1971: "Budget cuts will carve into the fire protection forces on the Plumas National Forest for the coming fire season, according to Forest Service spokesmen.
Preliminary review indicates a strong possibility, for at the least the coming season, of having to discontinue fire lookout on Pilot Peak near Onion Valley." (Portola Reporter)
July 15, 1976: "The last half mile of Pilot Peak Road off of LaPorte Rd. at Onioin Valley on Plumas National Forest will be gated to restrict vehicle access to the new lookout construction site," said Lloyd R. Britton, Plumas National Forest Supervisor.
"This administrative action has been taken to reduce the chance of further vandalism to the construction project," added Britton.
The new lookout building is being constructed to replace the previous one which was burned down by vandals. Completion expected by Oct. with use scheduled for next year.
The gate will be located so as not to interfere with any uses other than that of the road itself, Britton said.
The road will be reopened when the lookout is completed." (Feather River Bulletin)
"This administrative action has been taken to reduce the chance of further vandalism to the construction project," added Britton.
The new lookout building is being constructed to replace the previous one which was burned down by vandals. Completion expected by Oct. with use scheduled for next year.
The gate will be located so as not to interfere with any uses other than that of the road itself, Britton said.
The road will be reopened when the lookout is completed." (Feather River Bulletin)
August 26, 1976: (Caption under photos) "Making of a lookout. Bill Peay, U.S. Forest Service discusses Pilot Peak Lookout construction progress with Jim Stanley, director of the Butte California Conservation Corp. and Hal Nixon CDF, Sacramento. The lookout is under construction by the CDF California Conservation Corp. under Peay's direction. It is Oct. and will be manned for the 1977 fire season. U.S. Forest Service helicopter airlifted materials for the Pilot Peak Lookout while Helittack crewman guides the helicopter with its slingload to the drop pad." (Feather River Bulletin)
1976: A new lookout house, designed by the Forest Service and NASA, was erected. The new structure is a two story, six sided building that utilizes solar power as the primary electric source.
July 2009: The lookout has not been used for many years. Weather and vandalism have left the formerly state of the art lookout a mere shell of what it once was.