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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Mace Mountain Lookout Site

Douglas County lookout on Mace Mountain: an L-5 cab built in 1934 and removed around 1960; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed around 1960 per the register, destroyed in 1960 per firelookout.com; no source describes what remains

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
Ground-level cabL-5 cab on a minor point east of Old Fairview MountainThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,297 ft (1,310 m)
Agency
Douglas FPA
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.36378, −122.85622
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mace-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 3.5 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 EventRoseburg Chieftain item of September 14, 1933 planned a CCC-built 10 x 10 lookout (quoted by Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com both give 1934; a 1933 newspaper item quoted by Rex's page had planned a CCC-built 10 x 10 lookoutSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 EventPanorama photographs taken March 20, 1934 (Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1960
  5. 1960 RemovedRegister says removed around 1960; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1960; Rex's page says removed 1960Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: March 25, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 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.

Mace Mountain, in Douglas County about 26 miles northeast of Roseburg, got a fire lookout in 1934.1,2 A 1933 newspaper item, quoted on Rex's Fire Lookout Page, proposed a 10-by-10 lookout that the CCC would build before winter weather set in; that is the usual size for a secondary station.3 The register puts the cab on a minor point one and a quarter miles east of Old Fairview Mountain and calls it an L-5 cab.1,2 Panorama photographs were taken on March 20, 1934.3

The register's photo caption reads 1933 to 1965, which does not fit the register's own date of removal around 1960.1 Firelookout.com says the cab was destroyed in 1960, and Rex's page lists a 1960 removal.2,3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.

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

Photos

Mace Mountain Lookout 1933 - 1965
Mace Mountain Lookout 1933 - 1965 (1933)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, 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, 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: ownership, 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, 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.