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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Adams Mountain Lookout Site

Lane County, OR lookout in the Umpqua NF: 1918 platform, 1933 19-ft L-4 tower, removed or destroyed in 1958; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1958 per the register; firelookout.com says destroyed. No source describes the site today.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A 1942 report gives 26 miles of road from Cottage Grove to the trailhead, then five miles by trail; no source describes access today.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower19' wooden L-4 tower (1933); a 1942 report describes a round fir timber tower with a 14x14 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1918
Height
19 ft (5.8 m)
Elevation
4,955 ft (1,510 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.62061, −122.72251
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-adams-mountain

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1918 Built10-foot platform and rag camp set upSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1918 and 1933
  3. 1933 Replaced by a new structure19-foot wooden L-4 tower replaced the platform; a September 1933 item had planned a 10x10 lookout to be built by the CCCSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 StaffedLookout Fay Stewart was home on leaveSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 StaffedForest ranger Wayne Mackin planned to spend that summer at the stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1938 and 1958
  7. 1958 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1958 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 17, 2010 as US 749, OR 158Source: firetower.org
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Adams Mountain lookout stood in the Umpqua National Forest, about 15 miles southwest of Oakridge in Lane County.1 The register's record starts with a 10-foot platform and rag camp, set up in 1918.2 In 1933 a 19-foot wooden L-4 tower replaced it.2

A September 1933 newspaper item said a 10-by-10 lookout was to be built by the CCC.3 A July 1933 item says a man spent a week on the mountain with a work crew from the Brice Creek CCC camp.3 A 1942 report describes the 1933 tower as 19 feet tall, built of round fir timbers, with a 14-by-14 cab that was larger than the planned size.3 Getting there meant 26 miles by road from Cottage Grove to a trailhead, then a five-mile hike.3

Our sources name few people. A 1935 item said lookout Fay Stewart was home on leave.3 A 1938 item said forest ranger Wayne Mackin would spend that summer at the station.3

The register says the tower was removed in 1958.2 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, and neither source says how it came down.1 The site was registered on November 17, 2010,2 and the Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks it as gone.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public may visit. Ask the Umpqua National Forest before going.

  1. Adams Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/adamsmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Adams Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/adams-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Adams Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/adams-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Adams Mountain Lookout 1940
Adams Mountain Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, staffing, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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