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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Round Top Lookout

Jackson County ODF lookout: a 1950 L-4 tower, a 1973 replacement cab, staffed until 2016 and camera-watched since 2017. Sources disagree on height and early history.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Cherylhill lists the site as legally accessible; the directory says this does not mean access to the lookout itself. No source says the cab is open to visitors.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
NHLR 2016 visit report: no Register sign posted and directions to the tower are not signed
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerODF flattop live-in cab with catwalk on a treated timber tower (1973 replacement); the 1950 original was an L-4 on a pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
24 ft (7.3 m)
Elevation
4,626 ft (1,410 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.70197, −122.99107
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-round-top-2

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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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. 1934 BuiltFireLookout.com: 100-foot observation tower; not corroborated by the other sources readSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1950
  3. 1950 BuiltFirst lookout in service per NHLR: L-4 cab on a 20-foot pole tower. FireLookout.com also gives 1950. Weebly reports a December 1949 announcement of the tower.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1959 StaffedJune 1959 item says a named lookout manned the tower that morningSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1971 EventBreak-in; fire extinguisher and LPG light stolenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1973 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  7. 1973 RebuiltNew cab and tower under an agreement with Gene Ash for $1000 in state-furnished materials. Weebly gives a 24-foot tower; NHLR and FireLookout.com give 20 feet.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1973 and 1993
  9. 1993 EventBreak-in; shotgun stolenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1995 FireRegister-Guard profile dated August 27, 1995 (quoted on the Weebly page): a fire spotter on the tower reported a smoke column in the Sardine Creek drainage after a lightning storm the month before and called in several grass fires. No fire is named.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1998 AlteredCatwalk rebuiltSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003 (Register registry numbers US 501, OR 93)Source: nhlr.org
  13. 2016 Last staffedLast year of active service per the October 2016 Register visit reportSource: nhlr.org
  14. 2017 AlteredCameras installed on the tower; no longer staffedSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  15. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Round Top Lookout stands in Jackson County, Oregon, and the Oregon Department of Forestry administers it.1 A December 1949 item from the state forest patrol said a new tower on Round Top would replace the lookout at Railroad Gap.2 The Register says the department first put a lookout in service there in 1950, an L-4 cab on a 20-foot pole tower.1 FireLookout.com starts earlier, with a 100-foot observation tower in 1934, so the sources disagree about the first structure.1,3

In 1973 the state entered an agreement with Gene Ash, for $1000, to build a new lookout building from state-furnished materials.2 The history page describes that tower as 24 feet tall with a 14x14 flat-roof cab.2 The Register and FireLookout.com both give the tower a height of 20 feet.1,3

The 1950s items describe summer posts, and a June 1959 report says a named lookout manned the tower that morning.2 The Register's 2016 visit report says that summer was the last year of active service and that cameras were installed by summer 2017.1 FireLookout.com still says the tower is staffed every summer, which conflicts with the Register.3

A 1995 Register-Guard profile, quoted on a history page, says a fire spotter on the tower saw a column of smoke in the Sardine Creek drainage after a lightning storm the month before, and that she had called in several grass fires in the Rogue Valley below.2 Other entries record break-ins: a 1971 theft of a fire extinguisher and an LPG light, and a 1993 theft of a shotgun.2 The old cab had become unsafe, so a new one went up in 1973, and the catwalk was rebuilt in 1998.2

The Register still calls the tower active in its description, but its 2016 visit report says active service ended that year.1 Cherylhill's directory lists the tower as unmanned and the site as legally accessible, while noting that this does not mean visitors can reach the lookout itself.4 The Register records that no Register sign is posted and that directions to the tower are not signed.1 Anyone planning a visit should ask the Oregon Department of Forestry first, because none of these sources says the cab is open to the public.1,4

  1. Round Top Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/round-top-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Round Top - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/round-top1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Round Top Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/roundtop.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, cherylhill.net, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Round Top Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Round Top Lookout
Photo: Jeffrey Naas, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Round Top L.O.
Round Top L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: design, staffing, photos, 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: 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. 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.