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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Horse Mountain Lookout Site

An L-4 lookout cab on Horse Mountain in Lane County was built in 1932 and gone by 1965; no source describes what remains on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab gone since 1965; no source describes what remains on the summit.

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-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,225 ft (1,897 m)
Agency
U.S.Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.98785, −121.89714
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-horse-mountain

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. 1931 EventBurros and packers to carry two lookout houses, Horse Mountain among the summits; material on the ground by SeptemberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 Built14x14 L-4 gable-roof lookout house per the Weebly history; register gives the 1932 L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1932 and 1948
  4. 1948 StaffedA retired railroad man and his wife were to man the lookout, per the Register-GuardSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1948 and 1965
  6. 1965 RemovedRegister and Weebly history say removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1965 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, May 8, 2011Source: firetower.org
  9. 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.

Horse Mountain is a 6,225-foot summit in Lane County, roughly 18 miles from McKenzie Bridge to the southeast, within the Willamette National Forest.1,2,3

In July 1931 a newspaper item said burros would haul two lookout houses up to Cascade summits, and it named Horse Mountain as one of them.3 A September 1931 item said materials for the mountain's new lookout house had already arrived.3 The Weebly history records a 14-by-14-foot L-4 gable-roof house built in 1932, and the register gives the same year for an L-4 cab.3,1

In July 1948 the Register-Guard reported that a retired railroad man would staff the lookout with his wife.3

The register and the Weebly history both date the cab's removal to 1965.1,3 firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, so the sources disagree on how it ended but agree on the date.2

No source describes what remains on the summit now.

  1. Horse Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/horse-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Horse Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/horsemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Horse Mountain, Forest Lookouts (western US), Ron Kemnow, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/horse-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Horse Mountain Lookout 1946
Horse Mountain Lookout 1946 (1946)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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

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