FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Hood River County, Oregon

Mount Hood Lookout Site

Summit station on Mount Hood from 1915: a firefinder, then a D-6 cupola cabin; abandoned 1935 and slipped off the summit in 1941. No source read describes the summit today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin abandoned in 1935 and slipped off the summit in 1941; no source we read describes the summit site today

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 cabFirefinder and tent on the summit cairn (1915), replaced later that year by a Lige Coleman prototype for the D-6 cupola cabinThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1915
Height
225 ft (68.6 m)
Elevation
11,245 ft (3,428 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Hood River County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.37341, −121.69590
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mount-hood

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 its recorded height.

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. 1915 BuiltFirefinder and tent on the summit cairn, replaced later that year by a Lige Coleman prototype for the D-6 cupola cabinSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1915 First staffedLige Coleman (also Coalman) put in charge of the summit stationSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, mounthoodhistory.com
  3. 1918 StaffedMark Weygandt succeeded Coalman as observer by late September 1918Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1918 and 1935
  5. 1935 AbandonedRegister and firelookout.com say the cabin was abandoned in 1935Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1941 RemovedCabin slipped off the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1941 and 2010
  8. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 26, 2010 as US 605, OR 46Source: firetower.org
  9. 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 summit lookout on Mount Hood began in the summer of 1915, when the Forest Service set up a station on the peak.1 The plan, reported that July, was to keep a lookout on the peak to watch the Bull Run forest reserve through the whole year.2 The register says the first setup, in 1915, was a fire finder on the summit cairn and a wood-floored tent. Later that year a D-6 cupola cabin prototype, which the register links to Lige Coleman, replaced them.3

Elijah "Lige" Coalman, also spelled Coleman in some sources, was named to run the station.2 In August 1918 the Oregonian reported that Coalman had resigned recently.2 By late September 1918, Mark Weygandt was the observer.2

Both the register and firelookout.com date the cabin's abandonment to 1935 and its slide off the summit to 1941.3,4 We did not find a source that describes the summit today or what, if anything, remains of the cabin.

  1. Mt Hood Fire Lookout Archives, Mount Hood History, https://mounthoodhistory.com/tag/mt-hood-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Hood, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-hood.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mount Hood Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/mount-hood-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mt. Hood Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/mthood.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Hood Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mount Hood Lookout Site, 1928
(1928)Photo: Fire Lookout Museum, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mount Hood Lookout Site, 1921
(1921)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: height, 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.