FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Marion Peak Lookout Site

Also known as Marion Mountain

1934 L-4 cab near Marion Lake, Willamette NF; removed c.1964-65. A hiking guide describes a viewpoint called Marion Mountain and says it is not Marion Peak to the south; the sources do not confirm it is the register site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab was removed around 1964 or 1965. No source describes what remains on the ground today.

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. Inferred from the hiking guide, which describes a trail hike to the site and mentions no closure or permit. No Forest Service page was read for this site.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 9 miles and 1,100 ft of climbing from the Pine Ridge Trailhead, per Oregon Hikers; the guide calls its viewpoint Marion Mountain, and the sources do not confirm that it is the register site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,351 ft (1,631 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Willamette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.54775, −121.88040
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-marion-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 3.6 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. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab. Register, Kamstra and Kemnow all give 1934Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, orww.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1964
  3. 1964 RemovedKemnow dates the removal to about 1964Source: orww.org
  4. 1965 RemovedRegister says gone by 1965; Kamstra says gone 1965Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1965 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 11, 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.

The register lists this as the Marion Peak Lookout Site. It says an L-4 cab was built in 1934, about a mile southwest of Marion Lake, on a spur below the summit.1 Rex Kamstra's page places the lookout in the Willamette National Forest and gives the same year and design.2 Ron Kemnow's notes also give 1934.3

The cab came down in the mid-1960s, and the sources do not agree on the year.1,2,3 The register says it was gone by 1965, and Kamstra's page says 1965 too.1,2 Kemnow dates its removal to about 1964.3

A hiking guide gives the name Marion Mountain to a former lookout viewpoint over the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, reached by a moderate hike of 9 miles and 1,100 feet of climbing from the Pine Ridge Trailhead.4 The guide also warns that Marion Mountain is "not to be confused with Marion Peak just to the south."4 We could not confirm from these sources that the register's site and the guide's viewpoint are the same spot.

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains of the cab on the ground today.

  1. Marion Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/marion-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Marion Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/or/marionmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Marion Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), copy at orww.org, http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Linn/Marion_Mountain/Kenmow-Marion_Mountain_20200208.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Marion Mountain, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Marion_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Marion Peak Lookout 1934 - 1965
Marion Peak Lookout 1934 - 1965 (1934)Photo: Dave Smith, Howard Verschoor 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.