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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Big Squaw Mountain Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR, Umpqua NF lookout: L-4 cab from 1932-33, staffed 80 days in 1941, abandoned 1958 and gone; sources disagree on tower height.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1958 and gone; no source describes what remains at 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 towerL-4 cab on a timber tower (sources give 20 ft or 10 ft)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
4,878 ft (1,487 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.14195, −122.77378
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-big-squaw-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 3.8 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. 1932 BuiltRegister gives 1932 as the build year for an L-4 cab on a 20-foot tower; a July 1932 newspaper report described it as plannedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 EventForest Lookouts, citing Umpqua National Forest files, date the L-4 cab on a 10-foot timber tower to 1933Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 AlteredSeveral acres cleared to improve visibility from the lookout; the record tags the work as CCCSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 StaffedStaffed for 80 days and reported to the Steamboat Bridge Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1941 and 1958
  6. 1958 AbandonedAbandoned in 1958 and goneSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1958 and 2019
  8. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 11, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  9. 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.

Big Squaw Mountain is in Douglas County, Oregon, on the Umpqua National Forest.1,2 The lookout stood at 4,878 feet, on the divide between the Little River and the South Umpqua River.1,2

A July 1932 newspaper report said nine new lookout houses were to be built, one of them on Big Squaw Mountain.2 The site's register entry gives 1932 as the build year and describes an L-4 cab on a 20-foot tower.1 The Forest Lookouts list, drawing on Umpqua National Forest files, puts an L-4 cab on a 10-foot timber tower in 1933.2 A photograph of the view north from the lookout is dated August 12, 1933.3

In 1934 several acres were cleared to improve the view from the lookout, and the record tags that work as CCC.2 In 1941 the lookout was manned for 80 days, and its reports went to the Steamboat Bridge Ranger Station. A forest line tied its communications into Pacific Telephone and Telegraph.2

Both the register and Fire Lookout date its abandonment to 1958 and list the site as gone.1,4 The sources disagree on the tower's height. The register and Fire Lookout both give 20 feet, while the Forest Lookouts list says 10.1,2,4

None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today. None says whether the public can reach it.1,2,4

  1. Big Squaw Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/big-squaw-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Big Squaw Mountain - Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/big-squaw-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Big Squaw Mountain, ORWW Osbornes Project, http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Douglas/Big_Squaw_Mountain/index.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Big Squaw Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/bigsquaw.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Big Squaw Mountain Lookout 1940
Big Squaw Mountain Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Rex Kamstra 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, 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: design, 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, 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.