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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Bull of the Woods Lookout

Oregon L-4 cab on a timber tower in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness, built in 1942 and lost to the Bull Complex Fire in September 2021.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lost to fire activity in the Bull Complex Fire, September 2021. No source we read describes what, if anything, remains.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Inside the Bull of the Woods Wilderness and reached on foot. We did not find a current access notice.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A 3.2-mile hike in, per a 2005 item. The lookout was lost in 2021, so there is no cab to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a timber tower (register); tower height disputedThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1928
Height
15 ft (4.6 m)
Elevation
5,438 ft (1,658 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.88452, −122.09556
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bull-of-the-woods

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 4.1 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. 1928 BuiltFirst cabin on the site, a log cabin with a cupola. KTVZ and the Forest Lookouts timeline give 1928; firelookout.com gives 1923; the register says the 1920s.Sources: ktvz.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1941 StaffedStaffed for 74 days, per the Forest Lookouts timeline.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1942 RebuiltCurrent L-4 cab built on a timber tower; the register says the tower frame was prefabricated at a CCC camp.Sources: ktvz.com, nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1942 and 1964
  5. 1964 ClosedDeactivated as a lookout, per the Forest Lookouts timeline.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1964 Last staffedLast staffed 1963 or 1964 per the register; KTVZ says staffed each year until 1964, then intermittently by volunteers until the 1980s.Sources: nhlr.org, ktvz.com
  7. No record between 1964 and 1996
  8. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on December 30, 1996.Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2005 EventA 2005 PIT Traveler item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page says volunteers and Forest Service heritage staff would complete interior and exterior restoration. Completion is not confirmed in our sources.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 2005 and 2021
  11. 2021 DestroyedLost to fire activity on Sunday, per KTVZ. The Forest Service release dated September 6, 2021 says it was lost the day before.Sources: ktvz.com, cherylhill.net
  12. 2021 FireBull Complex Fire moved toward the lookout over several weeks.Sources: ktvz.com, cherylhill.net
  13. 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.

The Bull of the Woods lookout stood in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness, in the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon.1,2 The register places it on the crest of the Cascades.1

The register dates the first lookout on the site to the 1920s and calls it a small pole and shake cabin.1 firelookout.com gives 1923 for a log cabin with a cupola, while the Forest Lookouts timeline and KTVZ give 1928.3,4,5

The current cab was built in 1942 as an L-4 on a timber tower.1,4 The register says the tower frame was prefabricated at a CCC camp, and that the cab was a precut kit.1 Sources disagree on the tower's height. The register and a 2005 item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page put the cab on a 10-foot tower, while the same page's timeline says 15 feet.1,4

The lookout was staffed for 74 days in 1941, according to the Forest Lookouts timeline.4 KTVZ says it was staffed each year until 1964, and intermittently by volunteers until the 1980s.5 The register gives the last staffing as 1963 or 1964.1

The register lists the lookout as registered on December 30, 1996.1 A 2005 item says volunteers and Forest Service staff would complete interior and exterior restoration, and that participants would hike 3.2 miles in to camp there.4 The register says the lookout was used occasionally as a backcountry guard station, while firelookout.com says it was used only for emergencies in later years.1,3

As the Bull Complex Fire moved toward the lookout, firefighters took several protective steps.5 Wrap plans were drawn up several times and then dropped, because the work was too dangerous for firefighters and trained personnel were not available.5 On August 31 the Mt. Hood National Forest wrote on Facebook that it was not safe to keep firefighters there long enough to wrap the tower, and that crews had reduced some of the vegetation near it.2

The forest said the lookout was lost to fire activity on Sunday.5 Its news release, dated September 6, 2021, says it was lost the day before.2

The release says the lookout was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and drew frequent visitors interested in lookout history.2 We found no source that describes what, if anything, is left on the site. The 2005 item describes a 3.2-mile hike in, and we did not find a current access notice for the site.4

  1. Bull of the Woods Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/bull-of-the-woods-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bull of the Woods Lookout Burns, Every Lookout in Oregon, quoting a Mt. Hood National Forest news release, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2021/09/07/bull-of-the-woods-lookout-burns/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bull of the Woods Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/bullofthewoods.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Bull of the Woods, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bull-of-the-woods.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Historic Bull of the Woods Fire Lookout lost to flames of the Bull Complex wildfire, KTVZ, https://ktvz.com/news/fire-alert/2021/09/06/historic-bull-of-the-woods-fire-lookout-lost-to-flames-of-the-bull-complex-wildfire/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Bull of the Woods Lookout
Bull of the Woods LookoutPhoto: Mount Hood National Forest, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bull of the Woods Lookout
Photo: U.S. Forest Service- Pacific Northwest Region, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · 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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone
    • OpenStreetMap: Standing

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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: 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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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