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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Gold Hill Lookout Site

Willamette NF summit near McKenzie Bridge, OR: L-6 cab from 1934, Aircraft Warning Service post 1942-43, cab removed 1958 (one source says 1976); no source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed 1958 per two sources (1976 per firelookout.com); no source describes what remains

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
Ground-level cabL-6 cabThe design: L-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,738 ft (1,444 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.21191, −122.36394
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-gold-hill

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 3.8 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 BuiltRegister says the site started in 1934 with an L-6 cab; Rex's page shows a lookout house under way in 1933 and CCC work still going in October 1935Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1942 EventAWS cabin built a quarter mile west of the old cabSource: firetower.org
  3. 1942 StaffedAircraft Warning Service station activated August 11, 1942Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 Last staffedAWS station deactivated September 22, 1943; observer Wanda Drury recorded in 1943Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1956 EventCab used until 1956Sources: firelookout.com, firetower.org
  6. 1958 RemovedCab removedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1958 and 1976
  8. 1976 Eventfirelookout.com says the cab was gone by 1976; conflicts with the 1958 removal dateSource: firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1976 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 7, 2011Source: firetower.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.

Gold Hill is a summit in Oregon's Willamette National Forest, about ten miles northeast of McKenzie Bridge in Lane County.1,2 Sources disagree about when the lookout first went up. The register of former lookouts says the site began in 1934 with an L-6 cab.2 A Register-Guard report from late October 1935, though, describes CCC workers still building the lookout post, slowed by eight inches of snow.3

In 1942 the summit was used by the Aircraft Warning Service.3 A cabin for the service went up a quarter mile west of the old cab that year.2 The post's record gives August 11, 1942 as its start and September 22, 1943 as its end, with the Eugene Filter Center listed alongside those dates.3 One observer, Wanda Drury, is recorded there in 1943.3

The original cab stayed in use until 1956.1,2 The register and Rex's page both say it was removed in 1958.2,3 The firelookout.com page disagrees: it says the cab was gone by 1976, and its heading reads 1934 to 1976.1 The 1958 date has the most support, but the sources do not agree.

None of the three pages describes what, if anything, is left on the summit today, or whether visitors may go there. Anyone planning a trip should check with the Forest Service first.

  1. Gold Hill Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/goldhill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Gold Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/gold-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Gold Hill - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/gold-hill1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Gold Hill Lookout Site
Photo: 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, wartime use, 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: 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, 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.