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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Kelsay Valley Point Lookout Site

Umpqua NF point 3 miles NW of Red Cinder Butte, Douglas County, OR: a 1933 30-foot L-4 tower removed in 1961; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1961 (register and Oregon lookouts page) or destroyed (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 hip-roof cab on a 30-foot round timber pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
4,953 ft (1,510 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umpqua National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.30082, −122.10770
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-kelsay-valley-point

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 4.1 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 Built14-by-14 L-4 cab on a 30-foot round timber towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 EventAugust 1933 News-Review item: a road crew would build access to the new station, which the paper spelled Kelsey PointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1961
  4. 1961 RemovedRegister and Oregon lookouts page say removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1961 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: March 24, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  7. 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 Valley Point is a small point about three miles northwest of Red Cinder Butte, in Douglas County, Oregon.1,2 It sits in the Umpqua National Forest, 34 miles southeast of Oakridge.2

In August 1933 the Roseburg News-Review reported that a road crew would build access to a station then going up at a point the paper spelled Kelsey Point. The Forest Service planned to keep a main lookout there.3 The station was built that year, with a 14-by-14 L-4 cab on a 30-foot round timber tower.1,3

The lookout came down in 1961.1,2,3 The register and the Oregon lookouts page say it was removed, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,2,3

The register has a photograph captioned 1941, but no source we read describes what remains on the point today or whether it can be reached.1

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

Photos

Kelsay Valley Point Lookout 1941
Kelsay Valley Point Lookout 1941 (1941)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Kelsay Valley Point Lookout
Kelsay Valley Point LookoutPhoto: 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, 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.