Crane Flat Fire Lookout

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Crane Flat Fire Lookout in Yosemite National Park, California, is a two-story wooden tower built in 1931 in the National Park Service Rustic style. The lower level houses storage or a garage, while the upper level is the observation deck, sheltered by an overhanging roof. Designed by the National Park Service Landscape Division, with John Wosky involved, it was the first lookout in Yosemite and remained in use into the 1980s.

The lookout is one of only four similar structures in California, with the Henness Ridge Fire Lookout being the other one in Yosemite. These lookouts were specifically designed to blend with their surroundings, unlike the metal towers used by the U.S. Forest Service. The Crane Flat Lookout was part of a portfolio by Thomas Chalmers Vint, the National Park Service’s chief landscape architect, intended as prototypes for broad use.

The Crane Flat Fire Lookout was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.