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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Oregon

Chinquapin Lookout Site

Also known as Chinquapin Point

Lincoln County, OR 20-foot pole L-4 tower on Chinquapin Point, dated 1934 or 1936 and gone by 1950; no source describes what remains on the point.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed by 1950; no source describes what remains

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 tower20-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,104 ft (337 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Siuslaw National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.53863, −123.65623
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-chinquapin

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 3.6 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. 1934 BuiltTower constructed in 1934 per a note cited on the Forest Lookouts page and the Osbornes Project; the register and firelookout.com say 1936Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, orww.org
  2. 1936 Built20-foot pole L-4 tower built in 1936 per the register and firelookout.com; conflicts with the 1934 build dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1936 FireLookout spotted a new fire starting in a high hazard area in August 1936; the crew reached it quickly on her locationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1936 StaffedNell Springer, wife of emergency guard C.D. Springer, was at the lookout in August 1936 while he was away on a fireSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1950 AbandonedAbandoned by 1950 per the Osbornes ProjectSource: orww.org
  6. 1950 RemovedRegister says removed in 1950; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1950Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1950 and 2010
  8. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 23, 2010 as US 678, OR 110; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  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.

Chinquapin Point sits in the Siuslaw National Forest in Lincoln County, about 15 miles southeast of Toledo.1,2 The register describes a 20-foot pole L-4 tower on the point, at 1,104 feet (336 m) of elevation.1

The sources disagree about when the tower went up. A 1934 note cited on the Forest Lookouts page says the tower was built that year.3 The Osbornes Project also dates it to 1934.4 The register and firelookout.com both put the 20-foot tower in 1936.1,2 Panorama photos were taken there on March 24, 1934 and again on September 16, 1936.3,4

In August 1936 the Forest Lookouts page recounts that Nell Springer, wife of emergency guard C.D. Springer, was at the lookout while her husband was away on a fire.3 She spotted a new fire in a high-hazard area and pinpointed its location well enough that the crew got there as quickly as possible.3 The note's author suggested she receive the title of honorary lookout.3

The register says the tower was removed in 1950, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 The Osbornes Project describes the lookout as abandoned by 1950.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the point today, and we found no current access information. Check land ownership and access rules before you go.

  1. Chinquapin Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/chinquapin-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Chinquapin Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/chinquapin.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Chinquapin Point, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/chinquapin-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Chinquapin Lookout, The Osbornes Project, Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project, http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Lincoln/Chinquapin.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Chinquapin Lookout panoramic 9-16-36
Chinquapin Lookout panoramic 9-16-36Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, 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, what it is built of, 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: 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

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