FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Rooster Rock Lookout Site

Linn County lookout on a rock pillar: 8x8 frame cab in 1927, L-4 cab in 1935, abandoned 1963. Forest Service still lists the trail to the rock.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1963 and gone by 1966 per the Register; SummitPost says nothing really remains of the lookout at 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. Forest Service trail runs to the rock in the Menagerie Wilderness; the agency asks visitors to check current conditions with the local ranger station

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cab8x8 ft frame cab (1927) reached by about 100 ft of ladder up the pillar; L-4 cab added 1935The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1927
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,567 ft (1,087 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.41779, −122.30387 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-rooster-rock

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1927 Built8x8 ft frame cab near the top of the rock, reached by about 100 ft of ladderSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  2. 1934 EventNewspaper item: two Albany men had just returned from building a lookout station on the rockSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 BuiltL-4 cab (14x14 ground house) built behind and above the original locationSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  4. 1938 StaffedJune 1938 report: the Forest Service had already posted a lookout on the rockSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1939 EventCCC crew built a three-mile trail from Trout Creek camp to the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 StaffedWilliam D. Morgan named as lookout fireman for the summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1948 StaffedRegister-Guard item: a high school boy would spend the summer manning the stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1948 and 1963
  9. 1963 AbandonedAbandoned, per Oregon Lookouts and the Forest ServiceSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, fs.usda.gov, vanmarmot.org
  10. 1966 RemovedRegister says the lookout was gone by 1966Source: firetower.org
  11. No record between 1966 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 12, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  13. 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.

Rooster Rock is a large pillar of andesite and basalt in the Menagerie Wilderness, within the Willamette National Forest in Linn County.1,2,3

In 1927 a lookout went up near the top of the rock: an 8-by-8-foot frame cab that could be reached by about 100 feet of ladder.3,4 An L-4 cab was added in 1935, built behind and above the original spot.3,4

A 1934 newspaper item said two Albany men had just come back from building a lookout station on the rock.3 In June 1938 another paper reported that the Forest Service had already posted a lookout there.3 In 1939 William D. Morgan was the lookout fireman, and the station sat 11 miles by road and 3 miles by trail from Cascadia ranger station.3 That April a CCC crew had built a new three-mile trail from Trout Creek camp to the lookout.3 A 1948 item said a high school boy would spend the summer manning the station.3

The Oregon Lookouts history records the lookout as abandoned in 1963, and the Forest Service trail page gives the same year.3,1 The Register says it was gone by 1966, while FireLookout.com headlines its page "R.I.P. 1927-1935," so the sources disagree about when it ended.4,5

The Forest Service still lists the trail to the rock, notes that the rock is popular with climbers, and asks visitors to check current conditions at the local ranger station.1 A 2017 hiking report describes an opening on the ridge where the lookout's base cabin used to stand.6 A hiking and climbing site says nothing really remains of the old lookout at the summit, so what visitors find today is the rock itself rather than a standing lookout.2

  1. Rooster Rock Trail, Willamette National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/willamette/recreation/trails/rooster-rock-trail-3399 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Rooster Rock (Menagerie), SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/rooster-rock-menagerie/150867 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Rooster Rock - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/rooster-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Rooster Rock Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/rooster-rock-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Rooster Rock Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/roosterrock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Hiking to Rooster Rock in Oregon's Menagerie Wilderness, Van Marmot, https://vanmarmot.org/2017/07/17/rooster-rock-menagerie-wilderness-18-jul-2017/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Rooster Rock Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Rooster Rock Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 1.6 km (1.0 mi).

    • FFLOS: 44.41779, −122.30387
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 44.40416, −122.29739

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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, 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, status, agency, access, 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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