Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon
Fremont Point Lookout Site
Fremont NF lookout above Summer Lake: a 72-foot Aermotor tower (dated 1931 or 1936) removed in 2003 after the 2002 fire; a rebuilt cabin rents since 2015.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 2003 after the 2002 Winter Rim fire weakened it; the ground cabin was rebuilt and reopened as a rental in 2015
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. Fremont Point Cabin is rented through Recreation.gov. A privacy gate about a quarter mile past the day-use area opens with a reservation code. The tower is gone, so there is nothing to climb.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower72-foot all-steel Aermotor tower with a 7x7 steel cabThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1931
- Height
- 72 ft (21.9 m)
- Elevation
- 7,134 ft (2,174 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service (Fremont National Forest, now Fremont-Winema)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Lake County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 42.86569, −120.83389
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-fremont-point
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 3.7 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
- 1930 Eventcamp started at the siteSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1931 Built72-foot Aermotor tower completed in September 1931, per the 1931 entry Forest Lookouts quotes; the register and firelookout.com date the steel tower to 1936Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1933 Built16x18 garage and 12x16 living-quarters cabin builtSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1936 Eventsteel tower dated 1936 by the register, firelookout.com and Every Lookout in OregonSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
- 1940 Eventbecame a fire-weather station; readings phoned to Paisley Ranger Station dailySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1944 StaffedHelen (Johnson) Farmer, age 17, lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1944 and 1960
- 1960 StaffedFrank Ott on the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1972 Condition assessmentcondition survey: shutters damaged, cab paint peelingSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1974 Fireone fire reported from the station in the fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1974 and 1998
- 1998 Condition assessmentsafety inspection; the tower needs to be dismantled or restoredSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 2001 Condition assessmentcondition survey entry: abandoning in placeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 2002 BurnedWinter Rim fire destroyed the ground cabin and greatly weakened the towerSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
- 2003 Removedsteel tower removed due to structural weakening from the fireSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites Registerregistered May 20, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
- 2011 Eventfoundation construction begun for the replacement cabin in SeptemberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 2015 Rebuiltreplacement cabin completed in summer 2015 on the same footprintSource: recreation.gov
- 2015 Opened as a rentalcabin reopened as a rentalSource: fs.usda.gov
- 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.
Fremont Point sits on the rim above Summer Lake in Lake County, Oregon, at about 7,134 feet.1,2,3 The register names the Fremont National Forest, and the Forest Service now writes it as Fremont-Winema.1,3 A camp was started there in 1930.1,2
Sources disagree on when the tower went up. Forest Lookouts quotes a 1931 entry describing a new 72-foot all-steel Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7 steel cab, finished that September for $1,575.40.4 The register, firelookout.com and Every Lookout in Oregon date the steel tower to 1936 instead.1,2,5 Most sources give its height as 72 feet. A 1942 ranger memo says 75, and a 1931 newspaper account of a visit says 80.1,2,4,5
A 16-by-18 garage and a 12-by-16 living-quarters cabin went up in 1933.4 The Forest Service, by contrast, calls the cabin lost in 2002 the 1931 original.3
The station became a fire-weather station in 1940, with readings phoned to the Paisley Ranger Station daily at 4:30.4 Helen (Johnson) Farmer was the lookout in 1944. She was 17 that year, the youngest of the Fremont's lookouts.4 Frank Ott was on the lookout in 1960.4 The register says the tower was used in emergencies from the 1960s.1
The Winter Rim fire swept across Fremont Point in 2002.5 It destroyed the ground cabin, which had been on the recreation rental program, and severely weakened the tower.1,4 The steel tower was removed in 2003 because the fire had weakened its structure.4,5
The Forest Service rebuilt the ground cabin on the same footprint, and it reopened as a rental in 2015.3,6 It sleeps three or four people and has a wood stove and a wrap-around porch.3,6 It sits about a quarter mile past the day-use area, behind a privacy gate that opens with a reservation code.3 Reservations are made through Recreation.gov. In winter the roads are not maintained, so visitors may have to walk or use a snowmobile, depending on the weather.6,5
- Fremont Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fremont-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fremont Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fremontpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fremont Point Cabin Recreational Rental, Fremont-Winema National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/fremont-winema/recreation/fremont-point-cabin-recreational-rental (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fremont Point, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fremont-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fremont Point Cabin Rebuilt, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2015/10/28/fremont-point-cabin-rebuilt/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fremont Point Cabin, Recreation.gov, https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/251769 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- 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: what it is built of, 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 1024 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Fremont Point Cabin Recreational Rental (Fremont-Winema National Forest, U.S. Forest Service) (opens another site)
- Fremont Point Cabin (Recreation.gov) (opens another site)
- Fremont Point Cabin Rebuilt (Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill)) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Fremont Point on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Fremont Point 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.