FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coos County, Oregon

Eden Ridge

40-ft timber lookout in Coos County OR; first tower 1940, CT-3 replacement 1960; observer replaced by a detection camera in 2010. Listed as legally accessible to the public.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Cheryl Hill's Oregon list marks the site as accessible to the public. That column refers to the site, not the lookout itself.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A 1995 newspaper profile describes the drive from the Powers store to the tower. We found no current road or trail notes.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2010)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerCT-3, 40-foot treated timber tower with a 14-by-14-foot cabin (1960); the tower it replaced was an L-4 from 1940The designs: L-4, Region 6 timber towers (CT, TT)
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1940
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,485 ft (1,062 m)
Agency
Coos Forest Protective Association (Coos FPA)
Land
Federal land
Location
Coos County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.87010, −123.95510
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-eden-ridge

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1940 BuiltFirst lookout completed July 1940: 40 ft, 14x14 house, built by a Civilian Conservation Corps crewSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1941 StaffedStaffed 105 daysSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1955 EventDiscontinued by federal and state agencies; taken over by the Coos patrolSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1960 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  5. 1960 Replaced by a new structureOld tower condemned and demolished; new CT-3 40-ft treated timber tower with 14x14 cabinSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 1975
  7. 1975 AlteredMajor repairs after the November 9-10, 1975 windstormSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1975 and 1995
  9. 1995 StaffedSummer observer in a 14x14 cabin atop a 50-foot tower, per a 1995 newspaper profileSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1995 and 2010
  11. 2010 EventCoos FPA installed a smoke detection camera system; the tower was replaced by an automated detection cameraSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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.

Eden Ridge is a lookout site in Coos County, Oregon, about 29 miles northeast of Port Orford, at 3,485 feet.1 The first lookout was finished in July 1940. It was a 40-foot tower with a 14-by-14-foot house, built by a Civilian Conservation Corps crew.2

Observers staffed the lookout for 105 days in 1941.2 In 1955 the federal and state agencies that had run it discontinued the program, and the Coos patrol took the site over.2 A 1959 windstorm shook the tower so hard that the observer asked permission to leave it.2

In 1960 the old tower was declared unfit, taken down, and replaced by a 40-foot treated-timber tower with a 14-by-14 cabin.2 Firelookout.com gives the same 1960 date for the tower that stands today.1 A 1995 newspaper profile gives the height as 50 feet, which conflicts with the 40 feet in the other accounts.2 Storm damage in November 1975 needed major repairs.2

The tower still stands, but an automated camera now does the observer's job.1 In 2010 the Coos Forest Protective Association added a smoke-detection camera system.2

Cheryl Hill's Oregon list marks the site as accessible to the public, which means it can be legally reached. That column says nothing about whether the lookout itself is open to visitors.3 We found no current road or trail notes. Ask the association before any visit, and do not climb the tower unless it is clearly open to the public.3

  1. Eden Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/edenridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Eden Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/eden-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Eden Ridge L.O.
Eden Ridge L.OPhoto: John McWade, via firelookout.com · 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: elevation, design, agency, dates, photos, 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, ownership, 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
  4. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.