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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Kelsay Mountain Lookout Site

Umpqua NF summit in Douglas County, OR: a 22-foot L-4 tower built 1934-35 with a 1935 fire save, removed in 1965; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1965 (register) or destroyed that year (firelookout.com); 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 tower14-by-14 L-4 cab on a 22-foot round timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
22 ft (6.7 m)
Elevation
5,987 ft (1,825 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umpqua National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.34891, −122.18506
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-kelsay-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 3.7 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. 1934 Built14-by-14 L-4 cab constructed on a 22-foot round timber tower, per the Oregon lookouts pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 Built22-foot wooden L-4 tower built, per the register and firelookout.com; they differ from the 1934 cab dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1935 FireFire near the Lemalo Falls canyon on the North Umpqua River, started by unregistered campers; spotted and trenched by Neal and held to about a quarter acreSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 StaffedCharles Neal listed as lookout at Kelsay MountainSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 Built12-by-20-foot pole and shake garage constructed for $56Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1938 and 1965
  7. 1965 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1965 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: March 24, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Kelsay Mountain rises in the Umpqua National Forest, 30 miles southeast of Oakridge in Douglas County, Oregon.1,2 Its lookout was a 22-foot tower with a 14-by-14 L-4 cab.1,3 Sources disagree on the year: the Oregon lookouts page dates the cab to 1934, while the register and firelookout.com date the tower to 1935.1,2,3

In August 1935 the Umpqua supervisor, V.V. Harpham, publicly praised lookout Charles Neal for saving the Lemalo Falls canyon on the North Umpqua River from a fire.3 Neal spotted the smoke, sent an alarm and ran most of the way to the blaze. He trenched the fire and kept it to roughly a quarter acre until workers from the Diamond Lake CCC camp reached it.3 The fire had been started by unregistered campers.3 A 12-by-20-foot pole and shake garage followed in 1938 for $56.3

The register says the tower was removed in 1965, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2

A 2007 photograph of the site is on the register, but its caption does not describe what remains there.1 No source we read describes the summit today or says how to reach it.

  1. Kelsay Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/kelsay-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Kelsay Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/kelsaymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Kelsay Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/kelsay-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Kelsay Mountain Lookout 1936
Kelsay Mountain Lookout 1936 (1936)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Kelsay Mountain Lookout 1943
Kelsay Mountain Lookout 1943 (1943)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Kelsay Mountain Lookout shed 1943
Kelsay Mountain Lookout shed 1943 (1943)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Kelsay Mountain Lookout site 2007
Kelsay Mountain Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via 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, 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: 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.