FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Cape Mountain Lookout Site

Cape Mountain, Lane County OR: L-4 cab built 1933 near Florence; moved to Heceta Beach in 1951 (one source says destroyed 1950); site today not described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab moved off the peak in 1951 per the register and Forest Lookouts; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1950; no remains described

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,469 ft (448 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.09713, −124.07530
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-cape-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab built on the peak; a forest road to the mountain was under construction in 1932Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1935 First staffedFloyd Fisk transferred from Prairie Mountain to Cape Mountain as a fire precautionSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1936 StaffedDonald Johnson at the station in 1935 and again in May 1936Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 EventMapleton district ranger organized airplane observation posts; Cape Mountain was one of the posts establishedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1943 Last staffedErnest Ready and wife resigned; relieved by Walter and Mrs. Dennis of ClatskanieSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1950 Destroyedfirelookout.com says Destroyed 1950; the register and Forest Lookouts say moved in 1951Source: firelookout.com
  7. 1951 MovedLookout house purchased by a private party and moved to Heceta Beach, used as a weekend cabin; Forest Lookouts says moved to a private site on Heceta Beach RoadSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1951 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 23, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Cape Mountain rises about 11 miles north of Florence, in Lane County, inside the Siuslaw National Forest.1,2 In 1932 Oregon newspapers reported a new forest road under construction toward the peak, with a lookout to follow once the road was finished.3 The lookout went up in 1933 as an L-4 cab.3,1

The first staffing we found dates to spring 1935. Floyd Fisk was moved from Prairie Mountain to Cape Mountain as a precaution in a hazardous district.3 Donald Johnson went up to the station that year and again in 1936.3 In 1941 the Mapleton district ranger was appointed to organize airplane observation posts, and Cape Mountain was one of them.3 In July 1943 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Ready resigned, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Dennis of Clatskanie took over, the last staffing change we found.3

The sources disagree about the cab's fate. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says a private owner bought the lookout in 1951 and moved it to Heceta Beach, where it became a weekend cabin.1 The Forest Lookouts page also dates the removal to 1951, and says that, according to a Florence resident interviewed in the early 1980s, it went to a private site on Heceta Beach Road.3 The firelookout.com page says it was destroyed in 1950.2

A federal survey station description on the Forest Lookouts page places the lookout at the highest point of the mountain.3 We found no source that describes what remains on the peak today, or whether visitors can reach it.1

  1. Cape Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/cape-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cape Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, http://www.firelookout.com/or/capemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cape Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/cape-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Cape Mountain Lookout 1933 - 1950
Cape Mountain Lookout 1933 - 1950 (1933)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cape Mountain Lookout site
Cape Mountain Lookout sitePhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. 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: what it is built of, 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. 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.