I first heard of Signal Peak from a video about Southern Pacific's snow removal operations on Donner Pass. Part of the discussion referred to the wooden snowsheds which used to cover many miles of the tracks in the upper reaches of the pass to keep the line open during the notorious Sierra winter snowstorms. One of the many problems associated with the sheds was that they had a tendency to catch fire in the summer. In order to spot these fires as soon as possible, the railroad in 1876 located a mountain top from which about 40 miles of their right-of-way could be seen. There they built a small two room stone structure and stationed a fire lookout. This was the very first fire lookout in the western United States. The structure is no longer in use as the few remaining snowsheds are of concrete construction.
My cousin Tom Rodgers invited me along on a California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs organized trip to Signal Peak and Cisco Butte, so I grabbed my camera and went!