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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Herman Peak Lookout Site

Lane County, OR Siuslaw lookout: 1934 pole tower, 1960 41-ft tower; cab moved to Iron Mountain in 1976 and removed in 2007; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. First tower removed in 1974 per the register, or dismantled April 1976 per the Forest Lookouts page; cab moved to Iron Mountain (Linn County) in 1976 and removed in 2007

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 tower15-ft pole tower with L-4 cab (1934); 41-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (1960)The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
2,080 ft (634 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.12444, −124.01281
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-herman-peak

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 3.9 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 BuiltRound pole timber tower with an L-4 model 1931 cab constructed; the register describes a 15-foot pole towerSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1960
  3. 1960 Replaced by a new structure41-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat-roof cab erectedSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1973 Last staffedLast year the lookout was staffedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1974 RemovedRegister and firelookout.com date the removal to 1974; the Forest Lookouts page dates the dismantling to April 1976Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1976 MovedCab dismantled, trucked to Iron Mountain (Linn County, Willamette NF), lifted by helicopter and reassembledSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1976 and 2007
  8. 2007 RemovedIron Mountain lookout, with the Herman cab, brought down; the register says removed, firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, firelookout.org
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 10, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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.

Herman Peak is in the Siuslaw National Forest, in Lane County, Oregon, at about 2,080 feet, roughly 13 miles north-northeast of Florence.1,2

The first tower went up in 1934. The Forest Lookouts page records a timber tower made of round poles, topped by an L-4 model 1931 cab.3 The register calls it a 15-foot pole L-4 tower.1 A June 1934 newspaper item had said a lookout house would be built on the peak once a road that Civilian Conservation Corps crews were working on was finished.3

In 1960 a 41-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat-roof cab replaced it.1,3 The last staffed year was 1973.3

Sources disagree on when the tower came down. The register and firelookout.com say it was removed in 1974.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page says the cab was dismantled in April 1976, trucked to Iron Mountain, and reassembled on the summit there after a helicopter lifted it up.3

Iron Mountain is a separate site in Linn County on the Willamette National Forest.1,4 Its own L-4 cab was built in 1933, and in 1976 it received the R-6 cab from Herman Peak.4,5

The Oregon chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association listed the Iron Mountain lookout among three Oregon lookouts lost in 2007.6 Its 2007 report describes the cab as an R-6 ground cab moved from Herman Peak.6 The association made four trips up the mountain to salvage items before the lookout was brought down.6

Today we found no source that describes Herman Peak as it is now or whether anything is left there.1 The sources also do not say whether anything remains at Iron Mountain after the 2007 removal.4,6

  1. Herman Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/herman-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Herman Peak Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/or/hermanpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Herman Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Oregon Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/herman-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Iron Mountain Lookout Site (Linn County), Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/iron-mountain-lookout-site-linn-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Iron Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firelookout.com/or/ironmtn78.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Oregon Chapter Report 2007, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-or-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Herman Peak Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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: design, height, 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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