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Fire lookout · Curry County, Oregon

Cleopatra Mountain Lookout Site

Curry County, OR L-4 tower on the Siskiyou NF, built about 1939 or 1941 (sources differ), destroyed or removed in 1962; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1962 according to the sources; 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.

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 tower40-foot treated timber L-4 tower (Oregon lookouts page: a 40-foot tower with a L-4 cab)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1939
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,424 ft (1,044 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Siskiyou National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Curry County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.01486, −123.92003
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-cleopatra-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1936 EventPanorama photographs taken September 5, 1936 (Oregon lookouts page); predates both build dates given, not explainedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 BuiltBuilt about 1939 per the register and Firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1940 EventMay 1940 guard-placement plan: lightning the only cause of fires in past years (quoted on Oregon lookouts page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 BuiltTower with L-4 cab constructed in 1941 per Oregon lookouts page; the 1994 inventory table row appears to give 1941Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, digital.sou.edu
  5. 1941 StaffedStation staffed 84 days; reported by radio to the Redwood stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1941 and 1962
  7. 1962 DestroyedDestroyed October 12, 1962 in the Columbus Day storm (Oregon lookouts page); Firelookout.com says destroyed in 1962Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1962 RemovedRegister says removed in 1962Source: firetower.org
  9. No record between 1962 and 1994
  10. 1994 Condition assessmentAtwood cultural property inventory of historic Siskiyou lookouts, dated August 26, 1994; the Cleopatra row is in its tableSource: digital.sou.edu
  11. No record between 1994 and 2010
  12. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register December 9, 2010Source: firetower.org
  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.

Cleopatra Mountain is in Curry County, Oregon, on the Siskiyou National Forest, about 18 miles east-southeast of Brookings, at an elevation of 3,424 feet.1,2 A 40-foot treated timber L-4 tower went up there around 1939, according to the register and Firelookout.com.1,2 The Oregon lookouts page gives 1941 instead.3 A 1994 inventory of Siskiyou lookouts has a table that is hard to read, but its row for the mountain appears to show 1941 and a removal in 1962.4

The Oregon lookouts page also lists panorama photographs taken on September 5, 1936, before either construction date. It does not say what stood on the summit then.3

The same page says the station was staffed for 84 days in 1941 and reported by radio to the Redwood station.3 It also quotes a May 1940 plan for guard placement on the Siskiyou National Forest, which said lightning had been the sole cause of fires in earlier years and that the suggested dates were made on that basis.3

The Oregon lookouts page says the lookout was destroyed on October 12, 1962, in the Columbus Day storm.3 The register says it was removed in 1962, and Firelookout.com says destroyed.1,2 The register added the site on December 9, 2010.1

No source we read describes what remains at the site today, such as footings or a foundation, and none says whether the site is open to the public. A 2025 conservation article about the mountain describes the ways up to its top, including part of the historic McGrew Trail, and wooden stakes marking proposed nickel test sites there. It does not mention the lookout.5

  1. Cleopatra Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/cleopatra-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cleopatra Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/cleopatra.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cleopatra Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/cleopatra-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Historic Fire Lookouts on the Siskiyou National Forest: Cultural Property Inventory, Katherine C. Atwood, USDA Forest Service via Southern Oregon University Digital Collections, https://digital.sou.edu/digital/api/collection/p16085coll18/id/41128/download (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Cleopatra Mountain & the North Fork Smith River Watershed, KS Wild, https://www.kswild.org/conservation-efforts/cleopatra (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cleopatra Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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, staffing, 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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