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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Poole Hill Lookout Site

Jackson County, OR: 40-foot L-4 lookout built about 1934-35; removed or destroyed in 1948, house salvaged 1950; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1948 per the register and firelookout.com; lookout house salvaged in 1950; no source describes what remains

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 round native timber tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,843 ft (1,171 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry (register and firelookout.com); Rogue River National Forest (Forest Lookouts)
Land
Federal land
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.34901, −122.48732
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-poole-hill

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 3.5 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. 1935 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date the tower to 1935; Forest Lookouts gives about 1934 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1936 EventPanorama photos taken from the site on August 12, 1936Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1948 RemovedRegister says removed in 1948; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1948Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1950 RemovedLookout house salvaged, per the Southwest District Annual ReportSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1950 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 27, 2011 as US 890, OR 257; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Poole Hill sits in Jackson County, about 15 miles northeast of Ashland.1

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com date the tower to 1935.2,1 Forest Lookouts dates a 40-foot round native timber tower with an L-4 cab to about 1934.3 A register photograph is captioned as showing the lookout from 1935 to 1948.2 A panorama was taken from the site on August 12, 1936.3

The register and firelookout.com name the Oregon Department of Forestry as the agency. Forest Lookouts lists the site under the Rogue River National Forest, so the sources disagree on who ran it.2,1,3

The register says the tower was removed in 1948, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2,1 In 1950 the Southwest District Annual Report recorded that the lookout house had been salvaged.3

The register includes a photograph of the site from 2007.2 No source we read describes what remains there now, or whether the summit is open to visitors.

  1. Poole Hill Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/or/poolehill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Poole Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/poole-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Poole Hill, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/poole-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Poole Hill Lookout 1935 - 1948
Poole Hill Lookout 1935 - 1948 (1935)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Poole Hill Lookout panoramic 8-12-1936
Poole Hill Lookout panoramic 8-12-1936 (1936)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Poole Hill Lookout site 2007
Poole Hill Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, 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
  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: design, height, ownership, 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, 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.