Crane Flat Fire Lookout

The Crane Flat Fire Lookout in Yosemite National Park was built in 1931. An example of the National Park Service Rustic style, the lookout is a two-story structure with a lower storage or garage level and an upper observation level, with an overhanging roof. Design work was carried out by the National Park Service Landscape Division.The lookout was the first in Yosemite, and was still in use in the 1980s. It was designed in the National Park Service Rustic style, and is one of only four similar structures in California, with the Henness Ridge Fire Lookout being the only other in Yosemite. These lookouts were specifically designed to blend with their surroundings, in contrast to the metal towers used by the U.S. Forest Service. The Crane Flat lookout was included in an influential portfolio of park structures assembled by Thomas Chalmers Vint, chief landscape architect of the National Park Service to be used as prototypes for general use.