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Fire lookout · Benton County, Oregon

Grass Mountain Lookout Site (Benton County)

Also known as Grass Mountain

Benton County, OR lookout (Oregon Dept. of Forestry) built 1934-35, staffed 1935-42, removed 1968; concrete footings remain per a trip report.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1968 (1969 in one source); concrete footings remain near the summit per a trip report

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' wooden tower with 14'x14' cab (1935); 40' treated timber L-4 tower reported for 1951The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
39 ft (12.0 m)
Elevation
3,612 ft (1,101 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Federal land
Location
Benton County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.42389, −123.67374
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-grass-mountain-benton-county

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

  1. 1934 BuiltEugene paper, Oct 1934: tower and house practically completed. FFLOS and Wikipedia date it 1935.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 StaffedMrs. Norman Sapp and infant son at the station with Mr. Sapp (July 1935); earliest staffing item foundSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 StaffedLloyd Sassman stationed on Grass Mountain; Siuslaw National Forest supervisor directing lookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Dave Cathcart Jr. caring for the lookout stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Devere Taylor stationed at Grass Mountain lookout; last staffing item foundSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1946 EventNewly organized Polk-Benton District of the State Board of Forestry to occupy and maintain the station under an agreementSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1950 Replaced by a new structureNew tower erected for the lookout house (agency newsletter, quoted by Forest Lookouts); FFLOS and Forest Lookouts date the timber L-4 tower to 1951Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  8. 1962 EventOctober 12, 1962 windstorm; loss of the garage at the siteSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1963 RebuiltLookout ground cabin constructed for $408.06 from the state restoration fundSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1968 RemovedFFLOS: removed in 1968. firelookout.com: destroyed 1968. Wikipedia: decommissioned and dismantled 1968. Forest Lookouts gives 1969.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, en.wikipedia.org
  11. No record between 1968 and 2010
  12. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered per FFLOS on November 8, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  13. 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.

Grass Mountain rises to about 3,600 feet in Benton County, roughly 26 miles southeast of Newport, and a fire lookout stood on its summit from the mid-1930s until 1968.1,2

Sources disagree on when the first tower went up. A Eugene newspaper said in October 1934 that the tower and its house were practically finished, but the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register and Wikipedia both date the 40-foot tower to 1935.3,1,4 Its cab measured 14 by 14 feet.1

Several people staffed the station, and some of them were couples. In 1935 a Mrs. Norman Sapp, with her infant son, spent time there with her husband.3 A 1937 item named Lloyd Sassman as the stationed lookout, and later notices named the Cathcarts in 1939 and the Taylors in 1942.3 In 1937 the Siuslaw National Forest supervisor, R. S. Shelley, directed the lookouts, this one included.3

In 1946 the newly organized Polk-Benton District of the State Board of Forestry agreed to maintain the station.3 A new tower was erected in 1950, and a 1951 record describes a 42-foot timber tower, while FFLOS gives 40 feet for the 1951 tower.3,1 A windstorm in October 1962 caused the loss of the garage, and a ground cabin was built in 1963 with money from a state restoration fund.3 The lookout was removed in 1968, according to FFLOS and Wikipedia, which says it was dismantled. The Forest Lookouts page gives 1969 instead.1,4,3

The tower itself is gone, but a Summit Post trip report says concrete footings remain in the area. The same report says trees block every view except the one to the south.5 The same report describes an older road that leads to a gate where the hike begins.5 We found no official source on current access or ownership, so anyone planning a visit should check with the land manager first.

  1. Grass Mountain Lookout Site (Benton County), Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/grass-mountain-lookout-site-benton-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Grass Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/grassmtn44.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Grass Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/grass-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Grass Mountain (Benton County, Oregon), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mountain_(Benton_County,_Oregon) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Grass Mountain (OR), Summit Post trip report, https://www.summitpost.org/grass-mountain-or/272222 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Grass Mountain Lookout panoramic 9-17-36
Grass Mountain Lookout panoramic 9-17-36Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: ownership, 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, height, 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

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