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Fire lookout · Coos County, Oregon

Johnson Lookout Site

Also known as Johnson Mountain

A 40-foot wooden L-4 lookout from 1933 was replaced in 1948-49 and removed in 1968; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1968; no source describes what remains at the site.

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 towerL-4 cab on a 40-foot wooden tower (1933), replaced by a 50-foot treated timber tower (1949) per the registerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
2,941 ft (896 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Siskiyou National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Coos County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.81509, −124.09413
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-johnson

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. 1914 First staffedGuard J.P. Hayes assigned to Johnson Mountain in June 1914, before the first towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1914 and 1933
  3. 1933 Built40-foot wooden L-4 tower per register and firelookout.com; a 1934 CCC project item and a 1936 letter also cover the towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 StaffedLookout staffed 105 days; reports went through the Powers Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1949 Replaced by a new structureNew tower built alongside the first (1948-49); register and firelookout.com say 50 ft, newspapers say 63-65 ftSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1949 and 1968
  7. 1968 RemovedTower and lookout removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1968 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 19, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

Johnson Mountain lies in Coos County, on the Siskiyou National Forest near Powers.1,2 The site sits atop the northernmost of three summits, at 2,941 feet.1 The register and firelookout.com both date the first tower to 1933: a 40-foot wooden L-4 tower.1,3 A 1934 Coos Bay Times item, quoted on the Oregon lookouts page, listed a 40-foot wooden lookout tower for the mountain among a Civilian Conservation Corps camp's projects.2 A 1936 letter from the Forest Supervisor, quoted on the same page, says the tower was built on the mountain.2

A guard was on the mountain in 1914, nearly two decades before the first tower.1,2 A June 1914 Siskiyou Bulletin notice, quoted on the page, says guard J.P. Hayes would take up his duties there on June 15.2 By December 1925 the Coos Bay Times listed the Johnson Mountain station among the lookout stations the Coos FPA maintained.2 In 1941 the lookout was staffed 105 days, and reports went through the Powers Ranger Station over a West Coast Telephone line.2

In 1948 the Forest Service began building a replacement east of the first tower, which newspapers said had been declared unsafe.2 An August 19, 1949 item said the new tower would be ready for occupancy that week, and that the old one would come down once the lookout moved in.2 The register and firelookout.com put the replacement at 50 feet, while the 1948 and 1949 newspaper items quoted on the Oregon page give 63 or 65 feet.1,3,2 The register and firelookout.com both date the tower's removal to 1968. The register says it was removed, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,3

firelookout.org's county list marks the site as gone.4 I found no source that describes what remains on the summit today, or whether the public can reach it. Check with the Siskiyou National Forest before you go.

  1. Johnson Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/johnson-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Johnson Mountain, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/johnson-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Johnson Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/johnsonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon fire lookouts list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Johnson Mountain Lookout panoramic 6-28-37
Johnson Mountain Lookout panoramic 6-28-37Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, 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, 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, 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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