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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Ninemile Mountain

Douglas County, OR, Ninemile Mountain tower: planned 1933, dated 1933 or 1934 (sources differ), staffed 1941, an AWS post in 1943, now listed as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Oregon lookout list marks it gone; Oregon lookouts page says removed with no date; firelookout.com says abandoned in the 1940s. No demolition date found.

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
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower, L-4 type, with an R1 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Siskiyou National Forest; Douglas County Fire Patrol
Land
Unknown
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.78452, −123.70704
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-ninemile-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 3.8 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. 1928 EventShake cabin, per firelookout.com only; the Oregon lookouts page does not mention itSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1933 BuiltRoseburg News-Review item of 21 October 1933 describes a 40-foot tower with lightning protection already constructedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 FireSlash burn near the lookout got away in a warm, dry gale in December 1933; cleared two or three hundred feet on each sideSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 BuiltA 1939 forest history and firelookout.com date the 40-foot tower to 1934; conflicts with the 1933 newspaper itemSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  5. 1940 EventMay 1940 plan treats the site as supplementary to Mt. Reuben for fire detection, and notes more favorable country for fuel moistureSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1941 StaffedStaffed 94 days this season; communications by forest line to Pacific Telephone and Telegraph and on to Rand Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1943 EventAircraft Warning Service station George 9-4 activated 16 July and deactivated 14 October 1943, listed under the Roseburg Filter Center; placed in inactive status 14 October with recommendation to retainSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. Date unknown AbandonedAbandoned in the 1940s; firelookout.com gives only the decade, so no year is recordedSource: firelookout.com
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Ninemile Mountain rises to roughly 3,950 feet about seven miles west of West Fork in Douglas County, Oregon.1 A Siskiyou Bulletin item, quoted on a local lookout history page, reported in September 1933 that a Rand district ranger, then at the Mt. Reuben CCC camp inspecting fire equipment, was choosing the lookout site on the best pinnacle of Ninemile Ridge.2

A Roseburg News-Review item dated October 21, 1933, also quoted on that page, describes a 40-foot tower already completed on Nine Mile mountain and equipped against lightning.2 Other sources date the tower to 1934.2,1 A 1939 forest history lists an R1 cab for that year, and the firelookout.com history gives a 40-foot pole tower in 1934, after a shake cabin in 1928.2,1 The sources disagree by a year.2,1 The newspaper is closest in time to the building, but we cannot settle the date.2

A May 1940 plan considered the site a supplement to Mt. Reuben for fire detection, and noted that its country was more favorable for fuel moisture.2 In 1941 the lookout was staffed for 94 days.2 Its communications used a forest line that connected to Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, and from there reached the Rand Ranger Station.2

A slash burn near the lookout got away in December 1933.2 By 3 P.M. the wind had risen to a warm, dry gale, and the fire cleared 200 to 300 feet on each side.2 The Siskiyou Bulletin account called the fire helpful, since it cleared a serious fire hazard from around the new tower and cabin.2

During the Second World War the site was an Aircraft Warning Service post, station George 9-4.2 Its record lists activation on July 16, 1943, deactivation on October 14, and the Roseburg Filter Center.2 On October 14 the station was moved to inactive status, and the record recommended keeping it.2

The accounts of its end do not match.1,2 The firelookout.com history says the lookout was abandoned in the 1940s.1 The Oregon lookouts page marks it removed, without a year or method.2 No source we read gives a demolition date.

The Oregon lookout list on firelookout.org still marks the tower as gone.3 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the summit, such as footings or a foundation. None says whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Ninemile Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/or/ninemilemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ninemile Mountain, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/ninemile-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Oregon fire lookout list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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

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