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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Reynolds Ridge Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR lookout on the Umpqua NF, built 1933 as an L-5 cab and removed or destroyed in 1963; no source found that describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed in 1963 per the register and Forest Lookouts; firelookout.com says destroyed; no source describes remains at the site

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 cabL-5 cabThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,450 ft (1,661 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.38615, −122.51827
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-reynolds-ridge

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 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 BuiltL-5 cab at the southwest end of the summit ridge, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1933 EventPanorama photos taken August 20, 1933, by Cooper and SarlinSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1936 EventNew set of panorama photos taken August 2 and 3, 1936, by RittenhouseSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1936 and 1963
  5. 1963 RemovedRegister and Forest Lookouts say removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1963 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 28, 2011, nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

The Reynolds Ridge lookout stood near the southwest tip of a long summit ridge in the Umpqua National Forest, in Douglas County, Oregon, about 24 miles south of Oakridge.1,2 The register puts the site at 5,450 feet, or 1,661 meters.1

The register says the lookout was built in 1933 as an L-5 cab, and firelookout.com gives the same design and year.1,2 A September 1933 item in the Roseburg Chieftain, as quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, said a 10-by-10 lookout was to be built by the CCC before winter snow arrived.3 That plan and the register's L-5 cab do not obviously describe the same structure, and the sources we read do not say whether they do.1,3

Panorama photographs were taken at the site on August 20, 1933, by Cooper and Sarlin.3 A new set was taken by Rittenhouse on August 2 and 3, 1936.3

The register says the cab was removed in 1963.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, and the Forest Lookouts page lists it as removed without a date.2,3 The sources disagree on whether the cab was taken down or destroyed.

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the site is open to the public. The register recorded the lookout on March 28, 2011, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.1

  1. Reynolds Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/reynolds-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Reynolds Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/reynoldsridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Reynolds Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/reynolds-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Reynolds Ridge Lookout 1933 - 1963
Reynolds Ridge Lookout 1933 - 1963 (1933)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Reynolds Ridge Lookout site
Reynolds Ridge Lookout sitePhoto: Ron Kemnow, 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: 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, 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

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