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Fire lookout · Curry County, Oregon

Iron Mountain Lookout Site (Curry County)

Also known as Iron Mountain

Curry County, OR: a 1924 Region 5 cabin on Iron Mountain in the Siskiyou NF, given an L-4 cab in 1940 and gone by 1963; a public trail reaches the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lookout removed in 1963 per the register; 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. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Reached by the public Iron Mountain Trail, open year round with access limited late fall through spring; no water on the trail

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Iron Mountain Trail; a short side trail from the ridge leads to the former lookout high point

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabRegion 5 20'x20' cabin (1924), replaced with an L-4 cab in 1940The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1924
Height
150 ft (45.7 m)
Elevation
4,026 ft (1,227 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Siskiyou National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Curry County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.67576, −124.14818
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-iron-mountain-curry-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. 1924 BuiltRegion 5 20'x20' cabin; register and firelookout.com date it to 1924; Forest Lookouts says the lumber was sawn in 1924 and the house finished in summer 1925Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1929 StaffedLookout went on duty on the 16th of May and reported one fireSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 StaffedGeorge Valentine named as the lookout manSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1933 StaffedJames Cook, a former lookout, attending a service school at Oregon Caves in June 1933Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1940 Replaced by a new structureRegion 5 cabin replaced with an L-4 cab (register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1941 StaffedStation staffed 84 daysSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1943 BurnedFire in the lookout station; after the lookout left, the structure toppled, blazing, over a 150-foot cliffSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1944 RebuiltA new lookout building constructed (Forest Lookouts page only)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1944 and 1963
  10. 1963 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. No record between 1963 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 19, 2011Source: 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.

Iron Mountain stands in the Siskiyou National Forest in Curry County, about 18 miles east-southeast of Port Orford.1,2 The first lookout was a Region 5 cabin, 20 feet by 20, and the register and firelookout.com both date it to 1924.1,2 The Forest Lookouts history, which quotes old newspapers, adds detail.3 Lumber was whipsawed near the site in 1924 instead of being packed up ready-cut, and the house was finished in the summer of 1925.3 The sources disagree by a year on when the building was done.1,3

Newspaper items quoted by Forest Lookouts name a few of the people who worked the station.3 The lookout went on duty in May 1929 and reported one fire.3 George Valentine was the lookout man in 1930.3 James Cook, who had served as lookout, was attending a service school at the Oregon Caves in June 1933.3 The station was staffed for 84 days in 1941.3

One episode from 1943 stands out. A Roseburg News-Review item, quoted on the same page, says Orris Wood, a 17-year-old, had been commended for facing a fire in her station to call headquarters.3 Soon after she left, the building fell, burning, over a 150-foot cliff.3

The sources disagree about what came next.1,2,3 The register and firelookout.com both give an L-4 cab in 1940.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page instead records a new lookout building in 1944, after the fire.3 The register says the lookout was removed in 1963.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2

The Forest Service's Iron Mountain Trail page describes three high points on the ridge.4 The southernmost used to be a Forest Service lookout, and a short side trail leads to it.4 The trail is dry, has no water, and is open year round, though access is limited from late fall through spring.4 No source we read describes what remains on the summit today.1,4

  1. Iron Mountain Lookout Site (Curry County), Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/iron-mountain-lookout-site-curry-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Iron Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/ironmtn63.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Iron Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon pages), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/iron-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Iron Mountain Trail, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/rogue-siskiyou/recreation/trails/iron-mountain-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Iron Mountain Lookout Site (Curry County)
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1924
1924 (1924)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1924
1924 (1924)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: 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, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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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