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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Green Peter Lookout

Linn County, Oregon lookout: 1916 cabin, 1920 cupola, L-4 cab moved here in 1970; unmanned with cameras; NHLR-registered 2003. Sources disagree on early dates.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Listed as legally accessible to the public; sources do not describe the lookout itself as open to visitors

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 live-in cabThe designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,835 ft (1,169 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.48310, −122.58303
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-green-peter

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.

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. 1912 Eventalidade established on the site, per the history pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1916 Builtfirst structure at the site, a cabinSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1920 BuiltD-6 model cupola lookout houseSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1931 Firefire near Sodaville reported from Green Peter and Hurricane Deck lookouts; put out earlySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 EventArmy Aircraft Warning Service station active August 1942 to September 1943; woodshed-living room and service road builtSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1943 Staffedreported June 1943 that Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Whitcomb had been in charge over the winterSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1949 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  8. 1949 EventL-4 cab originally constructed at Jordan LookoutSource: nhlr.org
  9. 1950 Fireholdover fire on the Bert James property two miles south of Sodaville, reported by lookout Clarence JacobsonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1957 StaffedDavid Schmidt spent the summer as a lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1969 Replaced by a new structureold cupola torn down in October, per the history pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 1970 MovedRegister and firelookout.com: L-4 cab moved here from Jordan. History page: new 14x14 building finished in 1970 using Jordan and Swamp Mountain materials. Cherylhill lists 1970 as year built.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  13. No record between 1970 and 2003
  14. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered March 31, 2003; nominated by Howard Verschoor, Oregon RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
  15. 2004 Rebuiltwalls torn down to the studs; new windows, door, siding, floors and wallsSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  16. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Green Peter Lookout stands in Linn County, Oregon, about nine miles northeast of Sweet Home.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the site first had a cabin in 1916, and a cupola lookout replaced it in 1920.1 The Forest Lookouts history page also dates the cupola to 1920 and says an alidade was set up on the site in 1912.3 A 2006 Corvallis Gazette-Times report, quoted on that same page, gives 1923 as the build year of the original structure, so the early dates do not fully agree.3 The sources also differ on elevation: the Register lists 3,835 feet, while firelookout.com and cherylhill.net list 3,977 feet.1,2,4

The cab on the site today is an L-4 live-in design.1 The Register says it was built in 1949 at Jordan Lookout and moved to Green Peter in 1970, a move firelookout.com also describes.1,2 The history page tells it differently. It says the old cupola came down in October 1969, and a new 14-by-14 building finished in 1970 used materials from the Jordan and Swamp Mountain lookouts.3 Cherylhill's directory gives 1970 as the year built.4 The Register says the lookout was rebuilt in 2004, with its walls torn down to the studs.1

The Army's Aircraft Warning Service ran a station here from August 1942 to September 1943.3 A combination woodshed and living room and a service road were built to support it.3 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Whitcomb were in charge through the winter of 1942 to 1943.3

In 1931 a fire near Sodaville was reported from the Green Peter and Hurricane Deck lookouts, and the Hill Fire Patrol put it out before much harm was done.3 In 1950 the Green Peter lookout, Clarence Jacobson, reported a holdover fire two miles south of Sodaville.3 A drying east wind pushed the flames from a clearing into green timber. The Fire Patrol reported that timber damage was slight, though a few young trees died.3 In 1957 David Schmidt spent the summer as a lookout here.3

A note from Jim Basting printed on the Register page says that with smoke-detection cameras the lookout is no longer manned, but it does not say when.1 A camera on a 120-foot radio tower beside the lookout makes a full turn every six minutes, and it can be controlled manually if a fire is spotted.1 Cherylhill's directory, as of July 2026, lists the lookout as "Unmanned - cameras in use."4

Cherylhill marks the site as legally accessible to the public, but notes that this does not mean access to the lookout itself.4 The sources read do not say whether the cabin can be rented or visited. The Oregon Department of Forestry administers the site, so check with it before planning a trip.1

  1. Green Peter Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/green-peter-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Green Peter Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/greenpeter.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Green Peter - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/green-peter.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts – Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Green Peter Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Green Peter Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Green Peter Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Green Peter in 1957
Green Peter in 1957 (1957)Photo: the Dave Bula collection, via firelookout.com · source
Green Peter in 1970
Green Peter in 1970 (1970)Photo: the Dave Bula collection, via firelookout.com · 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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1949
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1916
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1970

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: what it is built of, design, 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, status, agency, access, 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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