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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Cinder Prairie Lookout Site

Former Umpqua National Forest lookout site. An L-4 cab built in 1933 was removed or destroyed in 1966; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab was removed or destroyed in 1966. No source describes what remains at the site.

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. On Umpqua National Forest land. No source describes current access.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
No tower stands. A 1953 survey description gives the route as three hours by horse pack from Toketee Falls via the Cinder Prairie Trail.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (1933), on a site with a pole-frame shelter recorded from 1929The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,424 ft (1,653 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.34814, −122.42504
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-cinder-prairie

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. 1927 EventSurvey alidade established at the site, c. 1927Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1929 EventPole-frame shelter about 16 by 12 feet with a dirt floor, about 150 feet east of the lookout pointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1931 StaffedDean Paulson reported in charge of the lookout (News-Review, July 1931)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1933 BuiltL-4 lookout cab constructed by the Civilian Conservation CorpsSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1933 and 1953
  6. 1953 StaffedReed College student Bob Housley hired by the Forest Service for the summer as lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1958 StaffedJoe Sand reported stationed at the lookout (August 1958); last staffing foundSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1966 RemovedRegister says the cab was removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1966 and 2010
  10. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register, November 24, 2010Source: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Cinder Prairie is a former lookout site in Douglas County, Oregon, on the Umpqua National Forest, about 27 miles south of Oakridge.1,2 A survey alidade was established at the site around 1927.3 By 1929 a shelter stood about 150 feet east of the lookout point. It was a pole frame covered with shakes, roughly 16 by 12 feet, with a dirt floor, and cooking was done over a campfire outside.3 The lookout house came in 1933, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built an L-4 cab there.1,3,2

Local newspapers recorded a few of the people who worked it. In July 1931 the News-Review of Roseburg reported that Dean Paulson was in charge of the lookout.3 In 1953 a Reed College student, Bob Housley, was hired by the Forest Service for the summer to work the lookout.3 In August 1958 another item said Joe Sand was stationed there.3

The cab's story ends in 1966. The register says it was removed that year, but firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,2 The two sources agree on the year and disagree on how the cab left the site.

I found no source that describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout today.1 A 1953 Forest Service survey description places a survey disk set in a drill hole in a small boulder, 10 feet northeast of the northeast corner of the lookout house and stamped "CINDER PRAIRIE L.O. 1938."3 Whether that disk is still there is not described. The same text puts the spot three hours by horse pack from Toketee Falls, by way of the Cinder Prairie Trail.3 That description dates from 1953, so check the route with the Umpqua National Forest before you go.

  1. Cinder Prairie Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/cinder-prairie-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cinder Prairie Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/cinderprairie.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cinder Prairie, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/cinder-prairie.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Cinder Prairie Lookout 1944
Cinder Prairie Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cinder Prairie Lookout 1927
Cinder Prairie Lookout 1927 (1927)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cinder Prairie Lookout 1927
Cinder Prairie Lookout 1927 (1927)Photo: Howard Verschoor 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: 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, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.