Fire lookout · Yamhill County, Oregon
Niagara Point Lookout Site
Forest Service tower in Yamhill County, OR, built 1936 or 1937 (sources differ), removed by 1948; no source describes the site today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1948 per the register pages; a 1954 survey note found no lookout on the top
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 tower30-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Wood
- Built
- 1936
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- 1,724 ft (526 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Yamhill County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 45.21478, −123.61898
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-niagara-point
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
- 1936 BuiltOregon Lookouts: panorama photos October 1936, crude wood tower that month, lookout house recently finished in December 1936Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1937 BuiltBoth register pages date the 30-foot pole tower to 1937Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1940 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description records a 30-foot wood lookout tower about six miles southeast of BlaineSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1948 RemovedRegister pages give 1948; firetower.org says removed and firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1954 EventU.S. Geological Survey recovery note: station found destroyed, no lookout tower on the topSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1954 and 2010
- 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 11, 2010Source: 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.
Niagara Point is in Yamhill County, inside the Siuslaw National Forest.1,2 A 1940 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description places the survey station at the center of a U.S. Forest Service 30-foot wood lookout tower, about six miles southeast of Blaine, by the headwaters of Niagara Creek.2
Sources disagree about when the tower went up. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com both give 1937 and describe a 30-foot pole tower of the L-4 type.3,4 The Oregon Lookouts page points to 1936 instead.2 It records panorama photographs from October 1936 and describes a crude wood tower that month.2 A December 1936 Forest newsletter item says the lookout house had recently been finished and would be skidded 13 miles and raised with a gin pole.2
The register pages say the tower came down in 1948.3,4 One calls it removed and the other destroyed.3,4 The Oregon Lookouts page lists it as removed but gives no date.2 When the U.S. Geological Survey checked the station in 1954, it found the station destroyed, with no lookout on the top.2
We found no source describing what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the spot is open to visitors. Do not expect a tower there to climb.
- Oregon Lookouts (alphabetical list), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Niagra Point, Oregon Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/niagra-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Niagara Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/niagara-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Niagara Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/niagarapoint.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.
Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- 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, 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 721 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Niagra Point on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Niagara Point 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.