FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Curry County, Oregon

Fishhook Peak Lookout Site

Siskiyou NF ground site: 1934 L-5 cab, staffed 100 days in 1941 with radio reports; sources disagree on whether it burned or was abandoned.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone. The register and the Oregon list say it burned; firelookout.com says abandoned. A trail guide reports timbers still on 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. Reached on Fish Hook Trail #1180 on Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest land. The Forest Service trail page lists it as not a fee site. The last stretch is cross-country (onX).

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Trail #1180 starts from Forest Road 2308-076 and ends at Fish Hook Camp. The lookout site is a short cross-country hike from a point about 0.8 miles past the trailhead (onX). The trail is in the 2002 Biscuit Fire area, where fire-killed snags can fall.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-5 ground cab (10x10 ft)The design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,030 ft (1,533 m)
Agency
Siskiyou National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Curry County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.53181, −123.91295
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fishhook-peak

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1934 BuiltL-5 ground cab built on the site; Weebly gives it as a 10x10 cabinSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 EventMay 1940 Siskiyou National Forest guard-placement plan: detection over a considerable area of high-hazard burnsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1941 StaffedStaffed 100 days and reported by radio to the Agness Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1941 and 2019
  5. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 13, 2019Source: firetower.org
  6. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Fishhook Peak stands in the Siskiyou National Forest in Curry County, about 30 miles west-northwest of Grants Pass.1,2 The lookout went up in 1934 as an L-5 ground cab, a small cabin set on the summit rather than on a tower.2,3

A May 1940 Siskiyou National Forest guard-placement plan said the lookout would watch a wide area of high-hazard burns.3 In 1941 the station was manned for 100 days and sent its reports by radio to the Agness Ranger Station.3

The sources do not agree on how the cabin ended. The register says it was "later burned down and is gone."2 The firelookout.com page calls it "Abandoned. Gone."1 The Oregon lookout list says "Removed by burning."3 A trail guide says it was "supposedly burned-down in the 1960s," and that pieces of its timbers still rest on the summit.4

The site was added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on November 13, 2019.2 Fish Hook Trail #1180 runs along the peak's crest and ends at Fish Hook Camp.5 The Forest Service warns that the trail crosses the Biscuit Fire area, which burned in 2002, and that dead trees from that fire are more likely to fall.5 According to the trail guide, the old lookout site is a brief off-trail walk along the ridge from a point about 0.8 miles past the trailhead.4 The same guide says the forest camp just south of the peak has left no trace.4 The trail is on national forest land, and no source says the site is closed or private.5

  1. Fishhook Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fishhookpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fishhook Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fishhook-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fishhook Peak, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fishhook-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Fish Hook Interpretive Trail #1180, onX Maps, https://www.onxmaps.com/backcountry/trails/hiking/us/oregon/fish-hook-interpretive-trail-1180-9yz34828lqlk (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Fish Hook Trail #1180, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/rogue-siskiyou/recreation/trails/fish-hook-trail-1180 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fishhook Peak Lookout 1944
Fishhook Peak Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fishhook Peak Lookout site 2007
Fishhook Peak Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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

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