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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Baughman Mountain Lookout

Also known as Baughman Point

Douglas County lookout site since 1925; the steel tower standing now dates to 1979, is available for emergencies only, and is not open to the public.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Listed as not accessible to the public; firelookout.com says it is now available for emergencies.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower14'x14' flattop cab with catwalk on a steel towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Steel
Height
54 ft (16.6 m)
Elevation
2,602 ft (793 m)
Agency
Douglas Forest Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.26808, −123.58007
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-baughman-mountain

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1925 BuiltTree lookout (a crow's nest in a Douglas-fir) put into service on the pointSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab on a short timber tower; firelookout.com dates a 20-foot wooden tower to 1933Sources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1942 EventArmy asked for a yearlong observation post; station active October 1942 to October 1943Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1953 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1953 Replaced by a new structure50-foot timber tower with an Amort-style cab erected about 1.5 miles east; old tower removedSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1953 and 1979
  7. 1979 Replaced by a new structureSteel tower from the dismantled Shivigny Mountain lookout installed with a new cabinSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1979 and 2000
  9. 2000 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 1, 2000 as US 331Source: nhlr.org
  10. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Baughman Mountain's first lookout was a crow's nest in a Douglas-fir, which the Douglas Forest Protective Association established in 1925.1,2 In 1934 an L-4 cab went up on a short timber tower. The register gives that tower a height of 10 feet, but firelookout.com describes a 20-foot wooden tower dated to 1933, so the early dates and heights disagree.1,2,3

In 1942 the Army asked for a yearlong observation post on the mountain, and the station was active from October of that year until October 1943.2 In 1953 a new 50-foot timber tower with an Amort-style cab went up about a mile and a half east, and the old tower was removed.1,2

The 1969 hunting season left the tower badly damaged.2 Vandalism forced the replacement of all the window glass in 1970, and in 1974 Baughman took the most severe vandalism damage of the eleven lookouts that year.2

In 1979 the present steel tower, taken from the dismantled Shivigny Mountain lookout, was installed with a new cabin, and the lookout went back into service early that summer.1,2 The register gives that tower a height of 54 feet 6 inches, while firelookout.com says 50 feet.1,3

Firelookout.com reports that summer staffing ran into the late 2000s and that the tower is now available for emergency use.3 The register says it is in active service, but Cheryl Hill's list of Oregon standing lookouts marks it as unmanned and not accessible to the public.1,4 Please do not climb it.

  1. Baughman Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/baughman-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Baughman Point, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/baughman-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Baughman Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/baughmanmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Cheryl Hill, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Baughman Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Baughman Mtn. L.O.
Baughman Mtn. L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1953
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1979
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1953

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: height, staffing, photos, 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: design, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, 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.