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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Salmon Mountain Lookout Site

Mount Hood NF L-4 cab lookout of the 1930s, removed or destroyed in 1962; the site is now a hike-in viewpoint at the end of Salmon Mountain Trail 787.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed or destroyed in 1962; no source says what, if anything, remains on the ground

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. Reached on foot by Salmon Mountain Trail 787 in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, per Oregon Hikers

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Oregon Hikers rates the hike moderate, 10 miles with 1,960 feet of gain

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,768 ft (1,149 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Mount Hood National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.26531, −121.97113 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-salmon-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 4.1 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. 1930 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com give only 'the 1930s'; the year shown is the start of that decadeSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1934 EventOregon Lookouts lists panorama photos dated March 10, 1934 under the site's entrySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1962
  4. 1962 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyed; Oregon Hikers says decommissionedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  5. No record between 1962 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegister lists September 20, 2010 as the registration dateSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Salmon Mountain, in the Mount Hood National Forest of Clackamas County, Oregon, carried an L-4 cab lookout built in the 1930s.1,2 An Oregon Lookouts page lists panorama photos dated March 10, 1934 under the site's entry.3

The cab came down in 1962. The register says it was removed, firelookout.com says it was destroyed, and Oregon Hikers says it was decommissioned that year.1,2,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Oregon list also marks the site as gone.5

The sources do not agree on elevation. The register gives 3,768 feet, Oregon Hikers gives 4,020 feet for the site, and firelookout.com gives 4,960 feet.1,4,2

Today the site is a viewpoint at the end of the Salmon Mountain Trail, number 787, in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness.4 Oregon Hikers rates the hike moderate, at 10 miles with 1,960 feet of gain.4 The guide says the western view is gone, though the northern view still reaches the Salmon River valley and Mount Hood.4 No source we read says whether anything of the cab remains on the ground.

  1. Salmon Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/salmon-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Salmon Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/salmonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Salmon Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/salmon-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Salmon Mountain Lookout Site, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Salmon_Mountain_Lookout_Site (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Oregon Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Salmon Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Steve Wolff, 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.

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 9.6 km (6.0 mi).

    • FFLOS: 45.26531, −121.97113
    • FFLA: 45.17912, −121.98071
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 45.17912, −121.98071

    They share a register number.

    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, 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, 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.