Fire lookouts in California began in 1876 when the Southern Pacific Railroad built a lookout on Red Mountain near Donner Summit to watch for train fires. In 1905 the nation’s forest reserves were organized into the USDA Forest Service, and Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot recognized that early fire detection from mountaintops was vital to protecting timber resources. At Buck Rock, an original lookout in use as early as 1908 was an open platform atop a granite dome, reached by climbing a slim tree trunk fitted with boards for steps; from there a fire patrol scanned for smoke with binoculars, a compass, and a map, then descended, mounted his horse, and raced to extinguish the fire. In 1914 the idea of a lookout where the watcher could both live and work was introduced, and the first live-in lookout, known as a 4-A style cab, was a fourteen-foot by fourteen-foot room enclosed by windows on all sides. Buck Rock Lookout, built in 1923, is one of only three 4-A cabs still existing. Timber-pole ladders once wound up the rock to the cab until easier access came in 1942 with installation of the present stairway. During World War Two, fire lookouts also served as enemy aircraft observation posts for the Army Air Forces Aircraft Warning Service, and women entered the Forest Service workforce, beginning a long tradition of women staffing lookouts. Although more than 8,000 fire lookouts once stood across the country and fewer than 1,000 remain, Buck Rock continues to be staffed by the Forest Service because of its commanding full-circle view and communications importance, while preservationists work to protect this part of the nation’s conservation heritage.