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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Quartz Mountain Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR lookout on Quartz Mountain (Umpqua NF): 1923 cupola cabin, L-5 cab in 1933, removed or destroyed around 1972; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed or destroyed around 1972; the sources disagree on which. No source describes the site now.

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
Ground-level cabCupola cabin built 1923; L-5 cab replaced it in 1933The designs: L-5, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,530 ft (1,686 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umpqua National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.16392, −122.67214
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-quartz-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1915 EventAugust 1915 newspaper calls Quartz Mountain one of the lookouts fire wardens used, earlier than the 1923 build date in the registersSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1920 FireAirplane forest patrol reported a fire near Quartz Mountain several hours before the lookouts found itSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1923 BuiltCupola cabin, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1923 First staffedRoseburg News-Review reports George Spaur going to work for the government at the lookout station (future tense in the paper)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1933 Replaced by a new structureL-5 cab replaced the cupola cabin per register; a September 1933 paper reports a second crew finished a 14-by-14-foot lookoutSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1937 StaffedA 1937 item names Howard Church of the lookout stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1937 and 1972
  8. 1972 RemovedRegister and Forest Lookouts page say removed; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1972Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1972 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 27, 2011 as US 892Source: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Quartz Mountain is in the Umpqua National Forest, in Douglas County, Oregon.1 An August 1915 newspaper item about a bear and its cub says the mountain was one of the lookouts fire wardens used to spot fires in the Umpqua forest reserve.2 That suggests a lookout was in use there before the 1923 date that the register gives.1,2

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says a cupola cabin built in 1923 was replaced with an L-5 cab in 1933.1,3 A September 1933 Roseburg paper reported that a second crew had finished a 14-by-14-foot lookout on the mountain.2

In June 1923 the Roseburg News-Review reported that George Spaur was going to Quartz Mountain to take a government job at the lookout.2 A 1937 "Believe It or Not" item, printed in the Nebraska State Journal, names Howard Church, of the lookout station, as the person who found a pilot's lost goggles.2

In July 1920 an airplane patrol reported a fire near Quartz Mountain several hours before the lookouts found it.2

The register says the L-5 cab was removed around 1972.1 The firelookout.com page says it was destroyed that year, and the Forest Lookouts page says only that the lookout was removed in 1972.3,2 The sources do not agree on whether it was taken down or destroyed.1,3,2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can go there. Ask the Umpqua National Forest before visiting.

  1. Quartz Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/quartz-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Quartz Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/quartz-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Quartz Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/quartzmtn64.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Quartz Mountain Lookout 1940
Quartz Mountain Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Quartz Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-11-33
Quartz Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-11-33Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, 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, 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: 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, 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.