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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Big Rock Lookout

Also known as Big Rock (Green Mountain)

A 1950 Forest Service-type cab on a nine-foot enclosed tower, burned in 1951 and reconstructed, on private timber land on Green Mountain, Linn County, Oregon; standing and unstaffed.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Private timber land behind a closed locked gate. A gate sign allows non-motorized recreation access when the industrial fire precaution level is at 1 or lower (2026 visit). The register lists the site as private land.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingStandard 14x14 Forest Service-type cab on a 9 ft enclosed tower (labelled L-4 by firelookout.com, BC-301 by the register)The designs: L-4, BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1950
Height
9 ft (2.7 m)
Elevation
4,507 ft (1,374 m)
Agency
Linn Forest Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.26805, −122.45085
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-big-rock-2

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 3.7 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. 1916 EventSite first established as a camp, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1916 and 1950
  3. 1950 BuiltCompleted August 22, 1950 by Knight and a crew of three men; register credits Santiam Lumber Company with the buildSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1951 BurnedJune 21, 1951: the Fire Patrol lookout station on Green Mountain burned to the ground; sparks from the cookstove started the blaze; a two-way radio and a fire-finder were lostSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
  5. 1951 RebuiltReconstructed in 1951 after the fire, per Every Lookout in OregonSource: cherylhill.net
  6. No record between 1951 and 1970
  7. 1970 EventUsed for emergencies in the 1970s, per firelookout.com (decade only)Source: firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1970 and 2007
  9. 2007 Condition assessmentSurveyed at private owners' request to estimate restoration cost and whether the FFLA Oregon Chapter would adopt it; second trip sealed the cab for winterSource: firelookout.org
  10. 2007 RestoredChapter members made a second trip to seal the lookout up for winter.Source: firelookout.org
  11. 2020 Fire2020 Holiday Farm Fire burned trees on the slopes of the mountain; the lookout came close to being destroyed but survivedSource: cherylhill.net
  12. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 22, 2022 as US 1607, OR 134; nominated by Brad EellsSource: nhlr.org
  13. 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.

Big Rock Lookout stands on Green Mountain in Linn County, Oregon, at about 4,500 feet.1,2 According to firelookout.com, the spot was first set up as a camp in 1916, but the lookout itself was built in 1950.2 A carpenter named Knight and a crew of three men finished the cab on August 22 that year.3

It is a standard Forest Service cab, a 14-by-14 design set nine feet off the ground on an enclosed tower, with space underneath planned as a garage and tool room.3 The register calls the design a BC-301, while firelookout.com calls the cab an L-4, so the sources label it differently.1,2 An August 1950 item quoted by Forest Lookouts said the lookout was meant to cover the Upper Wiley Creek area and the upper Calapooya basin, about 50,000 acres.3

The sources do not agree on who built it. The register says the Santiam Lumber Company built it and the Linn County Fire Patrol staffed it.1 The same 1950 item credits members of the Fire Patrol crew with completing it.3 It also said the lookout would not be manned that season, because nearby timber had to be felled first, and that watch would begin the following fire season.3 Firelookout.com says it was used for emergencies in the 1970s.2

The original cab burned in 1951. On June 21 the Linn County Fire Patrol announced that its lookout station on Green Mountain had burned to the ground.3,4 The Albany Democrat-Herald reported that sparks from the cookstove started the blaze and that a two-way radio and a fire-finder were lost.3 Every Lookout in Oregon says it was reconstructed in 1951.4 In 2020 the Holiday Farm Fire burned trees on the mountain's slopes, and the lookout came close to being destroyed but survived.4

In 2007 the Oregon Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association surveyed the lookout at the request of its private owners.5 The survey was meant to estimate what restoring it would cost, and to see whether the chapter wanted to adopt it.5 Members made a second trip that year to seal the cab for winter.5 The report does not describe a restoration.5

A 2026 visit described on Every Lookout in Oregon found it unstaffed, with an empty interior apart from an old table and a chair.4 The lookout sits on private timber land owned by Franklin-Clarkson, and the register lists the site as private land.1,4 The road is closed by a locked gate. A sign there allows non-motorized recreation access when the industrial fire precaution level is at 1 or lower, and the 2026 visitor parked at the gate and walked 5.9 miles to reach the lookout.4

  1. Big Rock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/big-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Big Rock (Green Mtn.) Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/bigrock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Big Rock - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/big-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Big Rock / Green Mountain, Every Lookout in Oregon, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2026/04/25/big-rock-green-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon chapter report, 2007 (PDF), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-or-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Big Rock Lookout
Big Rock LookoutPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Big Rock L.O.
Big Rock L.OPhoto: John McWade, 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, design, 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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  6. 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
  7. 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.