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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Battle Mountain Lookout Site

Jackson County lookout tower on Battle Mountain, built in stages from 1933 to 1936, closed in 1957, manned again in 1963, and gone by 1965-1970s depending on source.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says removed and destroyed in 1965; Forest Lookouts says destroyed in 1967; Firelookout says gone in the 1970s. 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
Cab on a towerTree crow's nest and tent or camp (1933), then a pole tower and log cabin (1935), then a 40-to-41-foot tower with an L-4 cab (1936)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,982 ft (1,214 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.64236, −123.11398
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-battle-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.

Downloads about 3.3 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. 1918 EventFire wardens build a log cabin on the summit (Medford Mail Tribune item, quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 StaffedLookout Roy Edwards falls ill on duty and is carried five miles down the trailSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 BuiltFirst structure: a crow's nest and tent (register) or crow's nest and camp (Firelookout)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1935 BuiltPole tower and log cabin (register, Firelookout); Forest Lookouts quotes a late-October 1935 item reporting the new tower completedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1935 StaffedVern Orr goes up to his summer stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1936 Built40-to-41-foot tower with L-4 cab (register, Firelookout). A 1936 letter quoted by Forest Lookouts gives 50 feetSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1936 and 1953
  8. 1953 StaffedEdith Osborn returns home from the station in OctoberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1957 ClosedClosed in October 1957, the last lookout in its district to shut down; kept as a radio relay pointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1963 StaffedStaffed for the 1963 season (photo caption, Medford Mail Tribune)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1965 DestroyedRegister lists removed in 1965 and says the lookout was destroyed in 1965Source: firetower.org
  12. 1965 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "1965".Source: FFLOS register entry
  13. 1967 DestroyedForest Lookouts logs 'The lookout destroyed' for 1967Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  14. No record between 1967 and 2019
  15. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 11, 2019Source: firetower.org
  16. 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.

Battle Mountain's lookout stood in Jackson County, Oregon, about 14 miles north of Rogue River, at an elevation of about 3,982 feet.1,2

The register dates a tree crow's nest and tent to 1933, and Firelookout gives a crow's nest and camp for the same year.1,2 A 1918 item, quoted on Forest Lookouts, says fire wardens were building a log cabin on the summit that year, so the start date is not settled.3 The register says a pole tower and log cabin followed in 1935 and that a 40-to-41-foot tower with an L-4 cab was built in 1936.1 Firelookout gives the same 1936 date.2 Forest Lookouts quotes a 1935 item reporting a new tower completed in late October, and a 1936 letter that calls the tower 50 feet tall, so the height and dates are disputed.3

Staffing is documented in a few scattered items. In September 1930 a lookout named Roy Edwards fell ill on duty, and forest men carried him five miles down rough mountain trail.3 Vern Orr went up to the summer station in July 1935.3 Edith Osborn returned home from the station in October 1953.3 In late October 1935 the five-and-a-half-mile road to the summit was getting its finishing touches. It was meant to end the packing of supplies up the mountain.3

In October 1957 the station closed, the final one in its district to shut, after being kept mainly as a radio relay point and for spotting possible hunter fires.3 The station was staffed for the 1963 season.3

The fate is disputed. The register says the lookout was removed in 1965 and that it was destroyed that year.1 Firelookout says it was abandoned and gone in the 1970s.2 Forest Lookouts logs it as destroyed in 1967.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the summit is open to visitors.1,2,3

  1. Battle Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/battle-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Battle Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/battlemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Battle Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/battle-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Battle Mountain Lookout 1936 - 1965
Battle Mountain Lookout 1936 - 1965 (1936)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Battle Mountain Lookout site 2007
Battle Mountain Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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, 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, staffing, 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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