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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Glass Hill Lookout Site

Union County, OR tower built 1936 (100 ft, disputed); sold out of state hands 1977 or 1984; cab removed; listed standing with cab gone, but a 2003 note says it fell over; private, no public access.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned after a sale by the Oregon Department of Forestry (1977 or 1984; sources differ). No public access per FFLOS and firelookout.com.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Private land with no public access; the sources list no public visits.
Staffing
Unknown (as of 1954)

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower100-ft treated timber tower; L-6 cab per FFLOS, 7x7-ft cab per firelookout.com; living quarters and garage (house since replaced)The design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
5,391 ft (1,643 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry until its sale; privately owned since
Land
Unknown
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.20473, −118.07540
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-glass-hill

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.

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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. 1936 BuiltTimber lookout built on the site in 1936; CCC crew from the Hilgard camp began construction in August 1936Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 StaffedGale Mills stationed at the Glass Hill lookout before leaving for Camp MurraySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1954 StaffedKnown lookout personnel: Jeanine Watkins; tower, cabin and garage painted the same yearSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1954 and 1970
  5. 1970 EventPlan for 1971 to replace the lookout with a metal tower; no source says whether the replacement happenedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1977 EventLookout sold to Lynn Steiger for $4,176 (ODF annual report quoted on Rex's page); the 1984 auction date conflictsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1984 EventODF sold the site at auction to a private party (FFLOS and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1984 and 2003
  9. 2003 EventThe tower, without its cab, fell over (Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 2003 and 2019
  11. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on November 15, 2019Source: firetower.org
  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.

Glass Hill is a 5,391-foot summit in Union County, Oregon, where a timber lookout was built in 1936.1,2,3

A CCC crew of ten from the Hilgard camp began construction that August, according to a 1936 newspaper item.4

Sources disagree on the height. The register and firelookout.com give 100 feet, a 1936 paper says 90, and a construction record says 82.1,2,4 The cab is called an L-6 in the register and a 7-by-7-foot cab on firelookout.com.1,2

Gale Mills was stationed at the lookout in 1940, and firelookout.com names Jeanine Watkins as lookout personnel in 1954.4,2 The tower, cabin and garage were painted in 1954.4 A 1970 state forestry report says plans for 1971 included replacing the lookout with a metal tower, but the sources do not say whether that happened.4

The sale date is disputed. Rex's page quotes a 1977 state report that the lookout was sold to a private buyer for $4,176, while the register and firelookout.com put the sale at auction in 1984.4,1,2 The cab was removed at some point, and a 2003 note says the tower, without its cab, fell over.1,4

Firelookout.org lists the tower as standing with its cab gone, but CherylHill's list gives the status as unknown.3,5 The site is privately owned, and firelookout.com says it has no public access.2 The register gives a date registered of November 15, 2019.1 Please stay off the site.

  1. Glass Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/glass-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Glass Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/glasshill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Oregon lookouts list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Glass Hill - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/glass-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Oregon's standing lookouts, CherylHill, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Glass Hill Lookout
Glass Hill LookoutPhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Glass Hill Lookout
Glass Hill LookoutPhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Glass Hill Lookout site 2007
Glass Hill Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Howard Verschoor, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Glass Hill in 2000
Glass Hill in 2000 (2000)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): Standing

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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, 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: height, 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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. 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
  6. 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

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