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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Oak Flat Lookout Site

Umpqua NF, Douglas County, OR: 10-ft pole L-5 tower built 1933; register says removed in 1964, Fire Lookout site says destroyed; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the tower was removed in 1964; the Fire Lookout website says it was destroyed in 1964

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 tower10-foot pole L-5 tower topped by a 10 x 10 Aladdin lookout houseThe design: L-5
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
3,343 ft (1,019 m)
Agency
Umpqua National Forest (U.S. Forest Service)
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.29006, −122.51923
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-oak-flat

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 4.0 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. 1933 Built10-foot pole L-5 tower with a 10 x 10 Aladdin lookout house on a 10-foot round timber towerSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 EventPanorama photos taken August 21, 1936 (Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1938 StaffedRoseburg News-Review item (August 10, 1938) says Maurice Reid of Idleyld Park had spent the past few weeks on the Oak Flats lookout stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1938 and 1964
  5. 1964 DestroyedFire Lookout website says the tower was destroyed in 1964, which conflicts with the register's removedSource: firelookout.com
  6. 1964 RemovedRegister says the tower was removed in 1964Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1964 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 26, 2011 as US 884, OR 251Source: 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.

Oak Flat sat in Douglas County, Oregon, within the Umpqua National Forest.1,2

The tower went up in 1933 at the westernmost point, looking down on the mouth of Copeland Creek.3 The structure was a 10-foot pole L-5 tower, topped by a 10 by 10 Aladdin lookout house.3,2

Panorama photos were taken there on August 21, 1936.2 A Roseburg News-Review item from August 1938 says Maurice Reid of Idleyld Park had spent the past few weeks at the station before returning Tuesday.2

The register says the tower was removed in 1964.3 The Fire Lookout website says it was destroyed that same year.1 The two accounts differ on how it ended, but both put its end in 1964.3,1

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register listed the site on March 26, 2011, as US 884, OR 251.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.3,1,2

  1. Oak Flat Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/oakflat.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Oak Flats, Forest Lookouts (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/oak-flats.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Oak Flat Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/oak-flat-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Oak Flat Lookout 1933 - 1964
Oak Flat Lookout 1933 - 1964 (1933)Photo: Howard Verschoor, 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, height, status, agency, staffing, 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.