Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon
Nebo Mountain Lookout Site
Also known as Mount Nebo
Lane County summit lookout near Springfield, built 1934 by a CCC crew; gone by 1970 per register, removed 1971 per history page; no source describes the site today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and firelookout.com say gone by 1970; the history page says the lookout was removed in 1971
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
- Type
- Cab on a towerL-6 tower with a frame cabin, 87 feet per the register and firelookout.com; 79-foot tower built by the Wendling CCC camp per the history pageThe design: L-6
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 79 ft (24.1 m)
- Elevation
- 3,263 ft (995 m)
- Agency
- Oregon Department of Forestry, Eastern Lane District (history page); Eastern Lane FPA (register and firelookout.com)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Lane County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 44.15323, −122.71472 sources disagree
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-nebo-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 its recorded height.
Downloads about 3.9 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
- 1934 BuiltRoad to the summit and a lookout house completed by June 1934; the Wendling CCC camp built a 79-foot tower per the history page; register and firelookout.com give 87 feetSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1942 StaffedDonald McDonald of Marcola to continue at the Nebo lookout after Ronald Byers was transferredSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1956 AlteredObservation cab found unsafe; materials bought for replacementSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1970 RemovedRegister and firelookout.com say gone by 1970Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1971 RemovedHistory page says the lookout was removed in 1971Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1971 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 11, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Mount Nebo is about 16 miles northeast of Springfield in Lane County.1,2 A 1933 field report by Samuel L. Miller recommended a tower of at least 75 feet, because the peak was a long ridge with no distinct top.3 By June 1934 a road reached the summit and a lookout house had been finished there, and members of the Wendling Civilian Conservation Corps camp had built a 79-foot tower.3 The register and firelookout.com give 87 feet instead, for an L-6 tower with a frame cabin.2,1
A lookout was still on the post in 1942.3 That September the Eugene Guard reported that Donald McDonald of Marcola would keep serving at the lookout after another lookout, Ronald Byers, was transferred to Castle Rock.3 By 1956 the observation cab had been judged unsafe, and materials were bought to replace it.3
The register and firelookout.com say the tower was gone by 1970.2,1 The Forest Lookouts history page gives 1971 as the year the lookout was removed.3 That page names the Eastern Lane district of the Oregon Department of Forestry as the agency, while the register lists the Eastern Lane FPA as administrator.3,2
No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, and none says whether the public can reach it.3
- Mt. Nebo Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/mtnebo.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Nebo Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/nebo-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Mount Nebo - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-nebo.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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.
Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on the location by 1.1 km (0.7 mi).
- FFLA: 44.15323, −122.71472
- FFLOS: 44.15665, −122.70228
They share a register number.
The map uses the position from FFLA.
Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: name, county, elevation, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: location, type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 980 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Mt. Nebo on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Mount Nebo on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.