FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Polk County, Oregon

Fanno Mountain Lookout Site

Polk Co., OR: CCC-era 100-ft tower (1939) fell in a 1942 gale; a 40-ft tower finished 1957 was destroyed by the Columbus Day Storm on Oct 12, 1962.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed by the Columbus Day Storm on October 12, 1962. An NGS data sheet with 1972 marks describes concrete posts that were legs of the old tower foundation; no source says what survives today

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 tower100-foot timber tower built 1939 by Arboretum camp enrollees; rebuilt in 1944; 40-foot tower with 14x14 cabin completed 1957The designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1939
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,333 ft (1,016 m)
Agency
Oregon Dept. of Forestry (per FFLOS)
Land
Unknown
Location
Polk County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.86925, −123.64363
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fanno-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 4.2 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. 1939 Built100-foot timber tower erected by enrollees of the Cold Springs side camp of the Arboretum camp; CCC built the access road, a combined garage, tool house and woodshed, and largely completed the cabin the same yearSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 First staffedPolk County Fire association posted lookouts at Fanno Mountain, a new post that year (July 4, 1940)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1941 StaffedThe Hayes named as first permanent occupants (Daily Capital Journal, July 2, 1941)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 DestroyedA gale of at least 90 mph on November 14, 1942 shattered the 100-foot tower; the cabin at its foot was undamagedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 FireTrash fire set by a Valsetz school teacher ran up the hillside toward the tower; a Dallas crew answered the alarm and fought it (per a 2005 letter)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1942 EventActivated as an Aircraft Warning Service observation post on June 26, 1942Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1944 RebuiltConstruction started on a new 100-foot tower (Forest Log, June 1944)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1956 RemovedOld tower cabin removed; concrete footings poured for new tower legsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1957 Replaced by a new structureNew 40-foot tower and 14x14 cabin completedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1962 DestroyedDestroyed by the heavy winds of the Columbus Day Storm, October 12Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. 1964 EventDistrict traded the Fanno Lookout property to Willamette Valley Lumber Company for a sub-headquarters site at PhilomathSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1964 and 2010
  13. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 8, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  14. 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.

The Fanno Mountain lookout stood in western Polk County, Oregon, about two miles north of Valsetz.1 In 1939 the Civilian Conservation Corps built 8½ miles of truck road to the site, and at that location it also constructed a combined garage, tool house and woodshed and largely completed a cabin.1 The same year, enrollees from the Cold Springs side camp of the Arboretum camp erected a 100-foot timber tower.1 A 1941 newspaper described it as having a cabin on top, windows on all sides and a catwalk around it.1

The two Fire Lookout records describe the first tower differently. They say a 99-foot pole tower stood in the 1930s and was replaced in 1940 by a 50-foot pole tower.2,3 This story follows the newspapers and annual reports quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, which date the 100-foot tower to 1939.1

In July 1940 the Polk County Fire association posted lookouts at Fanno Mountain, which was a new post that year.1 A 1941 newspaper named the Hayes as the first permanent occupants.1 In June 1942 the lookout was activated as an Aircraft Warning Service observation post, and a June 1942 report said it was manned by a husband and wife.1

That same year, a fire that began when a Valsetz school teacher burned trash ran up the hillside toward the tower, according to a 2005 letter quoted on the Forest Lookouts page. A Dallas crew fought it.1

On November 14, 1942, a gale of at least 90 miles per hour shattered the 100-foot tower.1 The cabin at its foot, where a man and his wife were living at the time, was undamaged.1 A new 100-foot tower was under construction by June 1944.1 By 1956 the old tower cabin was gone, and concrete footings for the new legs had been poured.1 In 1957 a new 40-foot tower with a 14-by-14 cabin was finished.1 The Columbus Day Storm destroyed the lookout on October 12, 1962.1,2,3 In 1964 the district traded the lookout property to the Willamette Valley Lumber Company for a building site at Philomath.1

No source we read says what remains at the site today. The Forest Lookouts page prints a National Geodetic Survey data sheet for a survey mark stamped FANNO 1972, set in a concrete monument. Its reference marks sit on concrete posts that were legs of the old tower's foundation, but the excerpt does not say whether the marks or the posts survive.1 We found no information about who owns the land now or whether visitors are welcome, so anyone interested should ask the owner first.

  1. Fanno Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fanno-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fanno Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fanno-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fanno Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fannomtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fanno Mountain Lookout 1941
Fanno Mountain Lookout 1941 (1941)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fanno Mountain Lookout 1941
Fanno Mountain Lookout 1941 (1941)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, 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: 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

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