FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Deschutes/Lane County, Oregon

Maiden Peak Lookout Site

Cascade Crest summit lookout: a cupola cabin built in 1923 (camp from 1920); burned in 1955 or removed in 1958 per sources that differ; metal parts remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in the fall of 1955 per Rex's page and Willhite; the register, firelookout.com and Wikipedia date removal or destruction to 1958. A hiking guide says metal parts remain.

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. Reached on foot from a small trailhead on a dirt road near Willamette Pass, as a hiking guide describes the route. No Forest Service page was checked.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Park at a small trailhead on a dirt road near Willamette Pass; the trail climbs to the Pacific Crest Trail and on to the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabcupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,818 ft (2,383 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Deschutes National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes/Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.62677, −121.96472
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-maiden-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 3.5 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. 1908 EventRex's page: observation point for fire detection, with no improvements at the time; Willhite: a camp used for observationSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1912 StaffedEd Mahn the lookout on Maiden Peak; a telephone line from Crescent reached the summitSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1913 StaffedCharles Bowers stationed on the summit for the summerSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1918 ClosedStation discontinued temporarily (Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1920 EventCamp set up on the summit, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1922 ClosedStation discontinued for the year (Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1923 BuiltCupola cabin replaced the camp; Jim Gauldon of Bend to build it for about $650 (Bend Bulletin item quoted by Rex's page)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1923 and 1942
  9. 1942 Last staffedJames Stearns, the last person to staff the lookoutSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  10. 1955 BurnedDistrict Ranger Tom Greathouse and Ray Koski burned the lookout house in the fall (Rex's page and Willhite)Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  11. 1958 RemovedRegister says removed in 1958, firelookout.com says destroyed in 1958, Wikipedia says removed in 1958Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, en.wikipedia.org
  12. No record between 1958 and 2011
  13. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 11, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  14. 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.

Maiden Peak, a shield volcano on the Cascade Crest, sits on the boundary between Lane and Deschutes counties.1 Rex's page and Willhite's history both date observation use of the summit to 1908; Rex's page adds that there were no improvements at the time.2,3 By contrast, the register and firelookout.com date the first camp to 1920, which was replaced in 1923 by a cupola cabin.4,5 Rex's page quotes a June 1923 Bend Bulletin item: Jim Gauldon of Bend had been assigned to build the station at a cost of about $650.2

Early lookouts named in the histories include Ed Mahn in 1912 and Charles Bowers in 1913.2,3 The station was discontinued temporarily in 1918 and was discontinued for the year in 1922.2 The last person named as staffing it was James Stearns, in 1942.2,3

The sources disagree on how the lookout ended. Rex's page and Willhite's history both say District Ranger Tom Greathouse and Ray Koski burned the lookout house in the fall of 1955.2,3 The register, firelookout.com and Wikipedia instead date its removal or destruction to 1958.4,5,1

A hiking guide says a former fire lookout once stood on the summit, and a photo caption in it says metal parts of the lookout remain.3 Hikers reach it on foot: a dirt road leads to a small parking area and trailhead, and a trail climbs toward the Pacific Crest Trail and on to the summit.3 No source we read describes the remains in more detail.

  1. Maiden Peak, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_Peak_(Oregon) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Maiden Peak, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/maiden-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Maiden Peak - Hiking Information, willhiteweb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/oregon_lookouts/maiden_peak_lookout/willamette_pass_347.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Maiden Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/maiden-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Maiden Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/maidenpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Maiden Peak Lookout 1942
Maiden Peak Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: 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: 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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