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Fire lookout · Marion County, Oregon

House (Wildcat) Lookout Site

Also known as House Mountain

Marion County, OR, tower: 82-ft L-6 built 1937 with a ground cabin; staffed in 1940 and 1952; gone by 1967 (c.1965 per Forest Lookouts); no current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower gone by 1967 per the register and firelookout.com; Forest Lookouts says removed about 1965

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 tower82-foot timber L-6 tower with ground cabinThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1937
Height
82 ft (25.0 m)
Elevation
3,950 ft (1,204 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Marion County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.84121, −122.48299
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-house-wildcat

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 4.0 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. 1937 Built82-foot timber tower with L-6 cab and ground cabin (register, firelookout.com, Forest Lookouts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 StaffedClayton Wiggins in his second season as lookout (The Oregon Statesman, July 14, 1940, as quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1952 StaffedMrs. Clifford Johnson stationed on House Mountain, somewhat earlier than usual (The Oregon Statesman, June 14, 1952)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1953 AlteredFloor repainted (Clackamas-Marion District Annual Report)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1954 Altered1954 entry mentions repainting tower railing and cab; stool with glass legs installed for lightning protectionSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1963 Altered7 x 7 cabs replaced on the Myers Butte and House Mountain towers at a cost of $1315Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1967 RemovedGone by 1967 per the register and firelookout.com; Forest Lookouts says removed about 1965Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1967 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 26, 2010 as US 606, OR 47Source: firetower.org
  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.

House Mountain rises in Marion County, Oregon, about 18 miles northwest of Detroit.1 The register lists the Oregon Department of Forestry as the administering agency.2

Reports from 1936 describe a tower and a small cabin on top of the rock, and a new ranger station and house a few hundred yards from the cliff edge.3 According to the Oregon Statesman, a new forest road from the Elkhorn road brought drivers to within a few feet of the rock.3 That same paper gave the tower a height of 90 feet.3

The register dates the tower to 1937 and describes it as an 82-foot timber L-6 tower with a ground cabin.2 Firelookout.com also dates it to 1937,1 and Forest Lookouts gives 1937 for an 82-foot timber tower with an L-6 cab.3 The 1936 height and the 1937 build date do not match, so the sources disagree on the tower's history.

In July 1940 Clayton Wiggins left to serve his second season as lookout on House Mountain.3 In June 1952 a Mrs. Clifford Johnson was stationed there, which was somewhat earlier than usual.3

District annual reports record a repainted floor in 1953.3 A 1954 entry mentions repainting the tower's railing and cab, and records a stool with glass legs installed for lightning protection.3 In 1963 new 7-by-7 cabs were fitted to House Mountain and Myers Butte, at a cost of $1,315.3

Forest Lookouts says the tower was removed around 1965.3 The register and firelookout.com say it was gone by 1967.2,1 Either way, every account puts its end by 1967 at the latest.

No source we read describes what remains on the rock today or whether the public can reach it, so ask the managing agency before you go.

  1. House (Wildcat) Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/housewildcat.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. House (Wildcat) Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/house-wildcat-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. House Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/house-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of House (Wildcat) Lookout Site
Photo: 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.

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. 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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