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Fire lookout · Benton County, Oregon

Alsea Summit Lookout Site

Benton County, OR summit lookout; register dates its L-4 tower to 1939; newspapers show a summit lookout in 1937, a station being erected in December 1938, road work in 1939 and new towers in use in July 1941; removed or destroyed 1950; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1950 (sources differ on which); 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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 tower per the register; a 1940 newspaper describes a new station atop a 10-foot tower with storage space beneathThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
1,650 ft (503 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Siuslaw National Forest); Polk-Benton District of the State Board of Forestry was to occupy and maintain the station from 1946 under an agreement
Land
Federal land
Location
Benton County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.46235, −123.50021 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-alsea-summit

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.

Downloads about 3.6 MB of terrain data the first time.

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

History

Then and now

  1. 1937 First staffedRichard Strating in charge of a lookout atop Alsea mountain (Corvallis Gazette-Times, Aug 7, 1937)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 EventForestry department erecting a new lookout station on Alsea mountain (Corvallis Gazette-Times, Dec 8, 1938)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date the L-4 tower to 1939; newspapers show a new station being built 1938-1940 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 EventCCC enrollees begin a road from the summit westward to the lookout station (Sept 10, 1939)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1940 Replaced by a new structureNewspaper (Sept 18, 1940): new station atop a 10-foot tower announced to replace a tent lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1940 StaffedLookouts on duty in tents during 1940Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1941 EventNew lookout towers first used in July 1941 per newspaper (July 3, 1941)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1946 EventPolk-Benton District of the State Board of Forestry will occupy and maintain the station under an agreement (Corvallis Gazette-Times, May 2, 1946; a plan, not a confirmed occupation)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1950 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyed (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1950 and 2010
  11. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 22, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

Alsea Summit sits on Alsea Mountain in Benton County, Oregon, about 14 miles southwest of Corvallis, inside the Siuslaw National Forest.1,2,3

Sources disagree about when the first tower went up. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com both date an L-4 tower to 1939.1,2 Newspapers from the period suggest a different timeline.3 In August 1937 a lookout named Richard Strating was in charge of a post atop Alsea Mountain.3 On December 8, 1938, the forestry department was erecting a new station there.3 In September 1939 a crew of CCC enrollees began a road from the summit westward to the lookout station.3

A September 1940 report said a new station would replace a tent that a lookout had been using, and that it would be a tower ten feet high with storage space underneath.3 By July 1941 the papers reported that the new towers were in use for the first time, after lookouts had spent the previous year in tents.3 In May 1946 the newly organized Polk-Benton District of the State Board of Forestry was to occupy and maintain the station under an agreement.3

The sources disagree about the ending, too. The register says the tower was removed in 1950, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page gives no date and lists the site only as removed.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether visitors may go there. Check with the Siuslaw National Forest before you head out.

  1. Alsea Summit Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/alsea-summit-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Alsea Summit Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/alseasummit.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Alsea Summit, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/alsea-summit.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Alsea Summit Lookout 1944
Alsea Summit Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Alsea Summit Lookout site 2008
Alsea Summit Lookout site 2008 (2008)Photo: Howard Verschoor, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 570 m.

    • FFLOS: 44.46235, −123.50021
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 44.46679, −123.50371

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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: height, 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, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.