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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Lowe (Rho) Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as Lowe Mountain

Clackamas County, OR lookout site: 1915 log cabin, L-4 cab from 1932, removed 1964-66; the summit still holds stone steps, metal sheets and window glass.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed by 1966; the summit still holds stone steps, rusting sheet metal, window glass and part of a stay cable

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. On Mt. Hood NF. A July 2025 visitor walked in from forest roads and mentions no gate. Oregon Hikers tags its summit routes 'Closed' without saying why.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Park at the NF-220 junction on NF-4670; the summit is 1.42 miles round trip with 339 feet of gain, mostly along the NF-220 road

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabLog cabin with attached roof platform (1915), replaced by a standard L-4 cab in 1932The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1915
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,334 ft (1,626 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mt. Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.95627, −121.97379
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lowe-rho-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 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. 1915 BuiltLog cabin with attached roof platform, per FFLOS, firelookout.com and The Roaming Civic; Oregon Hikers says 1916 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, theroamingcivic.com
  2. 1915 StaffedEstacada Progress, July 1915: Chas. Frazier would be stationed on Mt. LoweSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1916 StaffedRalph Reed in charge of the station, per Eastern Clackamas News (September 1916)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1918 StaffedMrs. W. Wash and daughter Eva in charge, per Eastern Clackamas News (July and September 1918)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1932 Replaced by a new structureLog cabin replaced by a standard L-4 ground cabinSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  6. No record between 1932 and 1963
  7. 1963 Condition assessmentInspection report dated August 22, 1963: the building is old and should be replacedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1964 ClosedLookout deactivatedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1966 RemovedGone by 1966 per FFLOS and firelookout.com; The Roaming Civic says removed between 1964 and 1966Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, theroamingcivic.com
  10. No record between 1966 and 2010
  11. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 26, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  12. 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.

Lowe (Rho) Mountain is a former lookout site in the Mt. Hood National Forest, in Clackamas County, Oregon.1,2 The first lookout here was a log cabin with an attached roof platform, which the register and firelookout.com date to 1915.1,2,3 An Estacada Progress item from July 1914 reported that a new fire station was being built on Mt. Lowe, and Oregon Hikers dates the first cabin to 1916, so the start date is not settled.4,5 In 1932 an L-4 cab replaced the cabin.1,2,5,3

Forest Lookouts quotes local papers that name some of the people who worked the station.4 Chas. Frazier was to be stationed there in 1915.4 Ralph Reed was in charge in 1916.4 In 1918 Mrs. W. Wash and her daughter Eva were in charge.4

An inspection report dated August 22, 1963 judged the building old and recommended replacing it.4 The lookout was deactivated in 1964.4 Sources put its removal between 1964 and 1966.1,2,3

No source we read describes a standing structure at the site. Oregon Hikers says the summit still has stone steps, corroded sheet metal, glass gathered and stored in cans, and a fragment of the stay cable, and it mentions a couple of wind shelters.5

A July 2025 trip report says the writer parked at the junction of NF-220 and NF-4670 and walked mostly along the NF-220 road. The summit is 1.42 miles round trip with 339 feet of climb.3 Oregon Hikers tags the three routes to the summit "Closed" without saying why, so check the Forest's current notices before you go.5

  1. Lowe (Rho) Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/lowe-rho-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lowe (Rho) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lowe.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lowe Mountain, The Roaming Civic, https://theroamingcivic.com/tag/lowe-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lowe Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lowe-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Mount Lowe, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Mount_Lowe (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lowe (Rho) Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lowe (Rho) Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Fire Lookout Museum, 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: 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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