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Fire lookout · Josephine County, Oregon

Kerby Peak Lookout Site

Josephine County lookout on Kerby Peak, in use from at least 1916; the L-4 cab burned or was removed in 1959, and a climbing guide reports remnants on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lookout gone after 1959 (burned, per newspaper items and SummitPost; removed or destroyed, per the register and firelookout.com); SummitPost reports a few remnants of the structure 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. SummitPost describes a route from Selma on Highway 199 to a trailhead with parking for at least five vehicles, no Northwest Forest Pass required; not accessible in winter and spring

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Gravel road to a trailhead, then a hike to the summit; SummitPost says the mountain is not accessible in winter and spring

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabElevated L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,555 ft (1,693 m)
Agency
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Josephine County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.22022, −123.46116
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-kerby-peak

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.9 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. 1916 EventLookout station located on Kerby Mountain and a telephone line built to the summit, per 1916 newspaper itemsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 FireLookout discovered and reported a small fire near Love StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1922 StaffedW. M. Barr sent to the lookout station; a 1923 item has William Barr there, and says he came home when the season closedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1928 StaffedBen Carlyle named as the lookout man for the seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1931 EventLightning badly damaged the lookout house; repairs made by men sent from Grants PassSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1934 BuiltElevated L-4 cab per FFLOS and firelookout.com. Newspaper items show a lookout station by 1916 and a state-built house by 1928, so the cab may have replaced an earlier house; no source says soSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1938 EventState fire warden hurt in a fall from a cliff in the Kerby region was taken to the lookout station and carried out by a patrol of 12 menSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1938 and 1957
  9. 1957 StaffedBen Bleecha manned the stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1958 EventMay 1958 item: the old lookout would be rebuilt, or possibly moved to Roundtop. No source says either happenedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1959 BurnedBurned, because the building was feared to be infected with tuberculosis (newspaper compilation); SummitPost says it burned downSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, summitpost.org
  12. 1959 Destroyedfirelookout.com gives destroyed in 1959Source: firelookout.com
  13. 1959 RemovedFFLOS record gives removed in 1959Source: firetower.org
  14. No record between 1959 and 2011
  15. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 24, 2011 (FFLOS)Source: firetower.org
  16. 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.

A fire lookout was on Kerby Peak by 1916, when a telephone line was built to the summit and a cooperative station was set up with the federal forest service.1 Newspapers reported a state-built lookout house there by 1928.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com date an elevated L-4 cab on the summit to 1934,2,3 so the cab may have replaced an earlier house. The sources do not say whether it did.

Newspaper items name a few of the men who manned the station.1 William Barr was there in 1922 and came home when the fire season closed in 1923.1 Ben Carlyle was named lookout for the 1928 season.1 In July 1921 the lookout spotted a small fire near Love Station and reported it.1 In 1931 lightning badly damaged the lookout house.1 In July 1938 a state fire warden fell 14 feet from a cliff near Kerby, was taken to the station overnight, and was carried out on a stretcher the next morning.1

Ben Bleecha manned the station in 1957.1 A February 1958 item says he had held the job for two seasons and died in a Portland hospital while being treated for tuberculosis.1 A May 1958 item said the old lookout would be rebuilt, or possibly moved to Roundtop.1 The lookout burned in 1959, because the building was feared to be infected with tuberculosis.1,4 The register says it was removed that year, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed.2,3

An undated SummitPost climbing page says the lookout burned down in 1959 and that a few remnants of the structure are on the summit.4 The page describes a route from Selma on Highway 199 that ends at a trailhead with parking for at least five vehicles, and says no Northwest Forest Pass is needed.4 It also says the mountain is not accessible in winter and spring.4 No source I found describes the remnants in more detail.4

  1. Kerby Peak - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/kerby-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Kerby Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/kerby-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Kerby Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/kerbypeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Kerby Peak, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/kerby-peak/580277 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Kerby Peak Lookout Site
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, 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, 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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