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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Mount Bailey Lookout Site

Umpqua NF summit lookout: D-6 cupola cabin built 1923 after a 1921 telephone line; staffed through 1928; removed or destroyed 1952; no source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin removed or destroyed in 1952 (sources disagree on which); no source found describes what remains 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. Forest Service hiking trail still listed to the summit, Umpqua National Forest

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Hiking trail to the summit; the last half mile is steep and rocky

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cabin (1923)The design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,363 ft (2,549 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.15514, −122.21999
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mount-bailey

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. 1917 First staffedNewspaper said R.C. Agee would take charge of the lookout station at Old Bailey; the Oregon lookouts history dates the lookout to 1917Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, orww.org
  2. 1921 EventTemporary station planned (July 1921 report; opening not confirmed) with Arthur McIntosh of Riddle in chargeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1922 FireNewspaper credits the station with detecting a number of fires before they could do damage; no specific fires namedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1923 BuiltD-6 cupola cabin; parts cut in Roseburg, shipped to Medford, trucked to Diamond Lake and mule-packed to the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1928 StaffedPaul Geddes named as the forest service lookout when 17 visitors reached the summit in JulySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1928 and 1952
  7. 1952 RemovedFiretower.org says removed; firelookout.com and the Oregon lookouts history say destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, orww.org
  8. No record between 1952 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 18, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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.

Mount Bailey lies immediately west of Diamond Lake, and it was used as a lookout point for years before a proper cabin arrived.1 In 1917 a newspaper reported that R.C. Agee would take charge of a government lookout station there.1 The Forest Service finished a telephone line to the summit in 1921.1 Permanent lines were out of the question because of winter snow, so the wire lay on the ground and was taken up each fall.1 A temporary station, with Arthur McIntosh of Riddle in charge, was planned for that year.1

The permanent cabin went up in 1923, a D-6 cupola cabin.2,3 Its pieces were cut in Roseburg, numbered, shipped to Medford and trucked toward Diamond Lake, and mules carried them the last fourteen miles to the top.1 In early September 1923 Grant McLaughlin was building it, having brought the sawn lumber in by pack horse.1

A 1922 report said the station had helped detect a number of fires before they caused damage.1 In July 1928 Paul Geddes was the forest service lookout, and 17 visitors climbed to the summit that Sunday to meet him there.1

Sources disagree about how the cabin ended.2,3 Firetower.org says it was removed in 1952, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2,3 The Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project also says it was destroyed in 1952, and it dates the lookout to 1917, years before the cabin.4

Today no source we found describes what, if anything, is left on the summit.5 The Forest Service still lists a hiking trail to the top, where visitors find a crater, a rock garden, and a rock wall with a window overlooking Mount Thielsen.5

  1. Mount Bailey, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-bailey.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Bailey Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/mount-bailey-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mount Bailey Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/bailey.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mount Bailey Lookout, Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project (Osbornes Project), http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Douglas/Mount_Bailey.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Mount Bailey Trail, USDA Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/umpqua/recreation/trails/mount-bailey-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Bailey 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, 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

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