FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Scar Mountain Lookout Site

Scar Mountain lookout cab on the summit, built 1926 in Linn County, Oregon; staffed in the 1930s; removed 1965; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed in 1965; 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 cabD-5 style lookout house (a cab on the summit); no tower is describedThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,022 ft (1,531 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.56299, −122.10865
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-scar-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 3.9 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. 1926 BuiltBuilt 1926 atop the southwesternmost of two summits; a D-5 style lookout house per the Forest Lookouts historySources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 StaffedGeorge Brock stationed as lookout on Scar Mountain (Oregon Statesman, August 1933)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 StaffedElmer Klutke named as ranger and lookout on Scar Mountain (Daily Capital Journal, September 1935)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1936 StaffedJune 1936 item says Klutke will be located on Scar Mountain that summer; planned posting, not confirmed by a later sourceSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1936 and 1955
  6. 1955 Event1955 survey description places a marker 25 feet south of a Forest Service lookout house on top of the mountainSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1965 RemovedRegister and Forest Lookouts history say the cab or lookout house was removed in 1965; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1965 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register on May 12, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  10. 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 Scar Mountain lookout was a cab on the summit of Scar Mountain in Linn County, Oregon.1,2 Firelookout.com puts it about 12 miles south of Detroit.1 A 1955 survey description puts the survey marker about 13.5 miles south-southeast of Detroit, so the two sources disagree on the distance.2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register gives the county as Lane instead.3

The register dates the cab to 1926 and places it on the southwesternmost of two summits, in the Willamette National Forest.3 Another history of the site calls it a D-5 style lookout house built that year.2

In August 1933 the Oregon Statesman reported that George Brock was stationed on the mountain as a lookout.2 A 1935 item in the Daily Capital Journal described Elmer Klutke, of the forestry service, as a ranger who also staffed the Scar Mountain lookout.2 A June 1936 item said Klutke would be located there that summer.2

The same 1955 survey places a marker 25 feet south of a Forest Service lookout house on top of the mountain, so the house was still on the summit that year.2

The register says the cab was removed in 1965, and the Forest Lookouts history gives the same year for the lookout house.3,2 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year instead.1

The register added the site to its list on May 12, 2011.3

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today. The register places the site in the Willamette National Forest, but none of the sources says whether the summit can be visited.3

  1. Scar Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/scarmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Scar Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/scar-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Scar Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/scar-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Scar Mountain Lookout 1926 - 1965
Scar Mountain Lookout 1926 - 1965 (1926)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Scar Mountain Lookout
Scar Mountain LookoutPhoto: Dave Smith, Howard Verschoor collection, 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.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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, staffing, 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.