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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Isabelle Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as Mount Isabelle

Jackson County, OR: a 50-foot pole tower dated 1933 (or late 1934), an L-4 cab from 1959, lost in 1967; a 2007 Peakbagging photo shows radio gear on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lookout removed or destroyed in 1967 per the sources; a 2007 photo on Peakbagging shows radio gear on the summit and no lookout

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 cab50-foot pole tower with a 12-by-12-foot cab (1933); L-4 cab from 1959The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
4,494 ft (1,370 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry (per register)
Land
Unknown
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.30322, −123.10454
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-isabelle-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.4 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. 1933 Built50-foot pole tower with a 12-by-12-foot cab (register and firelookout.com); Forest Lookouts newspaper items put construction in late 1934Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 EventState forest service took over the emergency lookout (Medford Mail Tribune, October 1939)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1940 StaffedHarry Wickman of Medford went on duty June 26, after the state finished a telephone line from Rogue RiverSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1940 and 1959
  5. 1959 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab replaced the original cab (register and firelookout.com); Forest Lookouts records complete remodeling that yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1967 DestroyedFirelookout.com and Forest Lookouts say destroyed; the register says the L-4 cab was removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1967 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 19, 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.

Mount Isabelle stands in Jackson County, about 11 miles west of Medford.1,2 The register and firelookout.com both date the first lookout to 1933, when a 50-foot pole tower with a 12-by-12-foot cab went up.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page, which quotes old newspapers, puts construction later.3 A 1935 Medford Mail Tribune item says the lookout had been built late the previous fall, which points to late 1934.3 The sources disagree on the year.1,2,3

In April 1934 the Forest Service had finished surveying a road to the summit, where a fire lookout might be built.3 The lookout was kept for emergencies.3 The Medford paper reported it closed temporarily in August 1936, and in 1937 it stood unoccupied, reserved for emergencies.3 In 1939 the state forest service took it over.3 Harry Wickman of Medford went on duty there on June 26, 1940.3 The Medford paper's July 1, 1940 item reports that the state forest service had completed a telephone line from Rogue River to the lookout.3

The register says the cab was replaced with an L-4 in 1959.1 The Forest Lookouts page records complete remodeling that year.3 The register says the L-4 cab was removed in 1967, but firelookout.com and the Forest Lookouts page both say the lookout was destroyed that year.1,2,3

A Peakbagging page, which carries a photo dated August 2007, says the summit now has radio gear and no sign of a lookout.4 It also places the peak on BLM land, while the register lists the Oregon Department of Forestry as administrator.1,4 The sources disagree on who manages the land.1,4 No source we read says whether the site is open to the public.1,4

  1. Isabelle Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/isabelle-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Isabelle Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/mtisabelle.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mount Isabelle, Forest Lookouts (Oregon pages), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-isabelle.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mt. Isabelle, lookout site, Oregon, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/ORLookoutPhotos/MtIsabelle.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Isabelle Mountain Lookout 1959 - 1967
Isabelle Mountain Lookout 1959 - 1967 (1959)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Isabelle Mountain Lookout
Isabelle Mountain LookoutPhoto: Fred Johnson, 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, what it is built of, 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: 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, 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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