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Fire lookout · Josephine County, Oregon

Grants Pass Lookout Site

Tower on the ODF Southwest Oregon Unit Office grounds in Grants Pass, built in the 1930s per the register and removed in 1949; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1949 per the register; no source describes what remains at the office today

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
Cab on a tower40-foot tower with an L-6 cab (register); firelookout.com calls it a wooden observation towerThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,157 ft (353 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Josephine County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.49961, −123.36930 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-grants-pass

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. 1930 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  2. No record between 1930 and 1949
  3. 1949 RemovedRegister's Removed field reads 1949Source: firetower.org
  4. No record between 1949 and 2019
  5. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered November 13, 2019Source: firetower.org
  6. Date unknown BuiltRegister says sometime in the 1930s, with no exact year; firelookout.com's header dates put the build in the 1940sSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 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.

The Oregon Department of Forestry's Southwest Oregon Unit Office in Grants Pass had a lookout tower on its grounds.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register says it was a 40-foot tower with an L-6 cab, built sometime in the 1930s.1 firelookout.com calls it a wooden observation tower and gives its dates as "R.I.P. 1940s-1940s," which would put the build in the 1940s instead.2 The two sources also disagree on elevation. The register gives 1,157 feet, and firelookout.com gives 1,000 feet.1,2

The register records the lookout as removed in 1949.1 Its entry includes a photo of the lookout from the 1940s, courtesy of the Rex Kamstra collection.1

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the office today. The tower stood at a state forestry office, and the sources do not say whether those grounds are open to visitors.1,2

  1. Grants Pass Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/grants-pass-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Grants Pass Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/grantspass.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Grants Pass Lookout 1940's
Grants Pass Lookout 1940's (1940)Photo: Rex Kamstra collection, 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.

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 the location by 7.9 km (4.9 mi).

    • FFLOS: 42.49961, −123.36930
    • FFLA: 42.44456, −123.30929
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 42.44456, −123.30929

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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, 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. 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.