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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout Site

Umpqua NF lookout built by the CCC in 1933 on Rattlesnake Mountain; destroyed in the October 1962 Columbus Day storm. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed by the October 1962 Columbus Day storm; no source describes what remains on the summit.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Summit is reached on foot by trails through the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness, starting from Forest Road 870. Based on a 2015 hike report; no closure found, but current conditions are unverified.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
2015 hike report: start at Happy Camp near the end of Forest Road 870; trail #1497 leads to the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot round hemlock timber pole tower with a 14x14 hip-roofed L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,656 ft (2,029 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.10667, −122.42429
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-rattlesnake-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 3.6 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 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a 30-foot round hemlock tower with a 14x14 L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1937 FireAfter a lightning storm the lookout later found fire in an old stump below the summit; he had seen no smoke earlierSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 StaffedA lookout was on duty in September 1937 when a ranger and a writer passed on a trail below the summitSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1937 and 1962
  5. 1962 DestroyedDestroyed by the October 12, 1962 Columbus Day stormSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1962 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 27, 2011 as US 895, OR 262Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Rattlesnake Mountain lies in the Umpqua National Forest in Douglas County, Oregon. A fire lookout stood on its summit from 1933 until 1962.1,2

A Roseburg newspaper item from July 1932 announced nine new lookouts, one of them to be built on Rattlesnake Mountain in the Diamond Lake region.2 The Civilian Conservation Corps built the tower in 1933. It was 30 feet tall, round and made of hemlock timber, with a 14-by-14 L-4 cab under a hip roof.1,2

In September 1937, after a lightning storm, a ranger and a writer on a trail below the summit noticed a smell that might have been smoke. The lookout on duty had seen no smoke, but later that day he reported a fire in an old stump in dense timber below the lookout.2

On October 12, 1962, the Columbus Day storm destroyed the lookout.2,3 The register and firelookout.com call the storm a hurricane.1,4 The Forest Lookouts history page marks the lookout as removed but gives no date for that.2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today. A 2015 hike report started at Happy Camp, near the end of Forest Road 870, and reached the summit by a set of trails that included the #1497. The road runs into the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness. The report does not mention any remains of the lookout.3 Conditions may have changed since then, so check before you go.

  1. Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/rattlesnake-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Rattlesnake Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Forest Lookouts history, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/rattlesnake-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Rogue-Umpqua Divide: Rattlesnake Mountain Hike, Van Marmot, https://vanmarmot.org/2015/10/27/rattlesnake-mountain-rogue-umpqua-divide-wilderness-27-oct-2015/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Rattlesnake Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/rattlesnakemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout 1940
Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-6-1933
Rattlesnake Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-6-1933 (1933)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, 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: design, 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, access, visiting details, 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.