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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Fish Creek Mountain Lookout Site

Clackamas County site east of Estacada: women staffed a station here in 1918, a wooden L-4 tower stood from 1933, it was gone by 1967, and an August 2026 notice closes the area.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Oregon Hikers notice dated August 2026 says the area is closed because of the Austin Fire; the Forest Service closure order was not read

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower gone by 1967; the summit is the site of a former lookout

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 8.1 miles round trip from the Fish Creek Mountain trailhead; burned by the 2020 Riverside Fire; flagged as a lost hike

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerWooden L-4 tower (1933, per register); a 1947 survey describes a one-room building on polesThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1925
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,098 ft (1,554 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.07873, −122.12548
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fish-creek-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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1918 StaffedTwo women in charge of the station; Mrs. Anna Morton named as lookout in SeptemberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 BuiltTent with firefinder and telephone on the summit, around 1925 (register)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1933 Replaced by a new structureWooden L-4 tower replaced the tentSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1963
  5. 1963 Condition assessmentSeptember 1963 inspection: rotting legs, cracked footings; recommended replacementSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1967 RemovedGone by 1967 per the register and Firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1967 and 2010
  8. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 24, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  9. 2020 FireRiverside Fire burned the area intenselySource: oregonhikers.org
  10. 2026 ClosedArea closed because of the Austin Fire (notice dated August 2026)Source: oregonhikers.org
  11. 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.

Fish Creek Mountain stands east of Estacada in Clackamas County, Oregon, within the Mount Hood National Forest.1,2,3

The station was in use by 1918, when newspapers reported that women were in charge of it.3 In July the Eastern Clackamas News said Mrs. A.K. Morton and her sister, Florence Kendall, would be in charge, and in September the Morning Oregonian named Mrs. Anna Morton as the lookout that season.3 Both reports name a Mrs. Morton, so they probably describe the same woman.3

The register says the Forest Service set up a tent with a firefinder and a telephone at the site around 1925.1 In 1933 a wooden L-4 tower replaced the tent, and the register gives its size as 12 feet.1,2 A 1947 survey instead describes a one-room building on poles, about 30 feet high.3 The sources disagree on the height, and we have not settled it.

A Forest Service inspection in September 1963 found cracked footing blocks and rotting tower legs infested with carpenter ants.3 The inspector judged the tower old and recommended replacing it.3

The register and Firelookout.com both say the lookout was gone by 1967.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page marks the tower as removed.3

Today the summit is the site of a former lookout, reached by a trail of about eight miles round trip from the Fish Creek Mountain trailhead.4 The 2020 Riverside Fire burned through the area at high intensity.4 A notice on the Oregon Hikers guide, dated August 2026, says the area is closed because of the Austin Fire and points to a Forest Service closure order, which we did not read.4 The same guide marks the page as a Lost Hike, a label that warns the trail may be dangerous and hard to follow.4 Rains in February 1996 washed out the road to the trailhead at its lower end, and the Forest Service never repaired it.4 No source we read describes what remains on the summit now.

  1. Fish Creek Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fish-creek-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fish Creek Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fishcreekmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fish Creek Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fish-creek-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Fish Creek Mountain Hike, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Fish_Creek_Mountain_Hike (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fish Creek Mountain Lookout 1963
Fish Creek Mountain Lookout 1963 (1963)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fish Creek Mountain Lookout 1956
Fish Creek Mountain Lookout 1956 (1956)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via 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: 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, 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

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