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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Clayton Point Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR lookout built 1933 on the Umpqua NF, gone by 1958; sources disagree on design (L-4 tower vs L-5 cab); no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1958 per FFLOS and firelookout.com; Oregon lookouts page lists it as removed with no date. A 1953 survey station description refers to remains of a lookout tower 43 feet away.

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 tower10 x 10 ft L-5 style cab on a 20-foot round timber tower (FFLOS and firelookout.com call it a 20-foot pole L-4 tower)The designs: L-4, L-5
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
3,123 ft (952 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.05022, −122.80105
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-clayton-point

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 3.7 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 BuiltBuilt in 1933; all four sources agree on the yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 EventPanorama photos taken at the site on July 8, 1938Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1942 EventLookout shown in a 1942 photograph (FFLA post)Source: instagram.com
  4. 1953 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station described about 13 miles north of Tiller, 43 feet south of the remains of a lookout towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1958 RemovedGone by 1958 per FFLOS and firelookout.com; the Oregon lookouts page says removed with no dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1958 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register November 24, 2010Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

A lookout went up on Clayton Point in 1933.1,2,3,4 The site is in Douglas County, Oregon, on the Umpqua National Forest, roughly 30 air miles east-southeast of Roseburg.3,4

The sources disagree about the design. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and Firelookout.com describe a 20-foot pole L-4 tower.1,2 The Oregon lookouts history and the Forest Fire Lookout Association describe an L-5 style cab measuring 10 by 10 feet, on a 20-foot round timber tower.3,4 The Association adds that the legs look a little heavier than the standard 20-foot pole legs of lookouts from later in the 1930s.4

Panorama photos were taken at the site on July 8, 1938.3 A 1942 photograph shared by the Association shows the lookout almost ten years after it was built.4

The register added the site on November 24, 2010, and says the tower was gone by 1958.1 Firelookout.com gives the same end date.2 The Oregon lookouts page marks the tower as removed but gives no date.3 The Association suggests that the dense concentration of lookouts in the region probably led to its demise by 1958.4

A Coast and Geodetic Survey station described in 1953 sat 43 feet south of the remains of a lookout tower, on the southern slope of a timbered hill about 13 miles north of Tiller.3 That is the only on-the-ground description we found. No source we read describes what is left at the site today, such as footings or a foundation, and none says whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Clayton Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/clayton-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Clayton Point Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/claytonpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Clayton Point - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/clayton-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. #firelookoutfriday post on the Clayton Point lookout, Forest Fire Lookout Association on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/DFxVQilsxGl/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Clayton Point Lookout 1942
Clayton Point Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: 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, 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: 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, height, 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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