Mount Harkness Fire Lookout

Built in 1930 (National Park Service rustic). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.

From the record

“The Mount Harkness Fire Lookout, on Mount Harkness in Lassen Volcanic National Park, in Plumas County, California near Mineral, California, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.”
Wikipedia article Mount Harkness Fire Lookout, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 4 National Register listings published here for Plumas County · listed in 2017 · category: Building · built in 1930, National Park Service rustic.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Lassen Volcanic NP, Mineral, 96020
When was it listed? June 2017
Category. building
Also known as. Historic Park Landscapes in National and State Parks MPS
Census division. Chester
When was it built? 1930
Architectural style. National Park Service rustic
National Register reference number. 100001211 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

89 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Mount Harkness Fire Lookout between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,865 acres in total. 61 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	61
Recreation and ceremony	11
Debris and open burning	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Smoking	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 1999	Natural	under an acre	Lassen National Forest	A-1
8 September 1992	Smoking	under an acre	Lassen National Forest	RIM
3 September 1998	Smoking	1.5 acres	Lassen Volcanic National Park	GEYSER
29 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	GANDALF
28 September 2001	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	MTHARKNESS
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen National Forest	MOSQUITO
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen National Forest	HARKNESS
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	WILLOWS

Every fire recorded in Plumas County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1886 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
1892 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
1894 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000 - 8 printings
1955 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Mt. Harkness quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1958 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1968 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Mt. Harkness quadrangle1:24000
1989 USGS Lake Almanor quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Mount Harkness quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Warner Valley Ranger Station	4.4 miles	1978
	Drakesbad Guest Ranch	6.1 miles	2003

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100001211 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Plumas County	All 4 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.