Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon
Davis Mountain Lookout Site
Deschutes NF lookout built 1933 as a 40-ft L-4 tower; later removed or destroyed. Little remains at the summit, per a visitor guide.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower and cab are gone; the Willhite guide says not much remains at the summit
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 national forest land beside the Cascade Lakes Highway; Willhite describes an easy drive-up in high-clearance 4WD when the road has been brushed out
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- A decent road takes you about halfway up; the rest needs high clearance and a road that has been brushed out
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 40-foot round timber towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Wood
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- 40 ft (12.2 m)
- Elevation
- 6,625 ft (2,019 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Deschutes County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 43.62924, −121.76664
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-davis-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 3.3 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
- 1933 Built40-foot round timber tower with an L-4 cab, per the register and the Kamstra, Kemnow and Willhite pagesSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1934 EventThe L-4 lookout house (cab) completed; a 16-by-18 garage also builtSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
- 1936 AlteredHazard sticks, balanced scales and wind recording instruments installedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1950 FireAbandoned campfire blamed for one of two fires from the east shore of Davis Lake; spotted and brought under control by the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1950 StaffedTom Morris named as the Davis Mountain lookout in August 1950Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1950 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 25, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
- Date unknown RemovedRegister says later removed; Kamstra's page says later destroyed; neither gives a dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.
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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Davis Mountain stands in the Deschutes National Forest, in Deschutes County, Oregon, about 13 miles west of La Pine.1,2 It sits right off the Cascade Lakes Highway, between Davis Lake and the Wickiup Reservoir.3
A Forest Service crew was building the tower in late 1932.4 A report from that November, quoted on Kemnow's page, says the tower was complete but the wind was too strong to start work on the lookout house, which was still to be erected on top.4 Most pages give 1933 as the year the tower was built.1,2,4,3 The November 1932 report and that 1933 date differ by a year, and these sources do not show which one marks the finished tower.1,4 The lookout house, a 14-by-14 L-4 hip-roof cab, was completed in 1934.4 A 16-by-18 garage was also built.3
In June 1936 the lookout received hazard sticks, balanced scales and wind recording instruments.4 In August 1950, Tom Morris was the lookout when an abandoned campfire was blamed for one of two fires that started on Davis Mountain near the east shore of Davis Lake.4 He spotted the fire and got it under control, and it was confined to less than an acre.4
The sources disagree about how the tower ended.1,2 The register says it was later removed, while Kamstra's page says it was later destroyed.1,2
Willhite's visitor guide says not much remains at the summit.3 Its captions mention a footing out of the ground and a footing with an eyebolt.3 The same guide says the summit is an easy drive-up in a high-clearance 4WD vehicle, if the road has been brushed out, and that a decent road takes you about halfway.3 The site is on national forest land, so the Deschutes National Forest is the place to ask about current road and access conditions.1
- Davis Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/davis-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Davis Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/or/davismtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Davis Mountain Lookout - Cascade Lakes Highway, Oregon Fire Lookouts (Willhite Web), https://willhiteweb.com/oregon_lookouts/davis_mountain_lookout/cascade_lakes_highway_342.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Davis Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/davis-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 950 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Davis Mountain Lookout - Cascade Lakes Highway (Oregon Fire Lookouts (Willhite Web)) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Davis Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Davis Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.