FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Slide Mountain Lookout Site

Steel Aermotor lookout on Slide Mountain, Fremont NF: built 1929, towers sold for scrap in 1968, gone by 1973. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Steel tower sold for scrap in 1968; cab and cabin gone by 1973.

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
Cab on a tower47-foot Aermotor LX-25 all-steel tower with a 7x7 cabThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
Built of
Steel
Built
1929
Height
47 ft (14.3 m)
Elevation
7,762 ft (2,366 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Fremont National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.68174, −120.72465
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-slide-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.4 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. 1925 EventTelephone line to the peak completed August 20 (September 1925 item); erection of a lookout there mentionedSource: foresthistory.org
  2. 1929 Built47-foot Aermotor steel tower with 7x7 cab, replacing a 1920s 20-foot platformSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 AlteredOne-room 14 by 16 ft cabin built for living quartersSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1933 Altered16 by 18 ft garage built; later dismantled and moved to PaisleySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 EventDistrict Ranger memo gives tower height as 48 feetSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1943 StaffedJohn Strang Jr. serving as Forest Service lookout (Bend Bulletin, July 1943)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1956 RemovedAll improvements except the tower removedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1968 EventMay 1968 letter: towers offered to Army, to be pushed over and scrap sold; October 1968 memo: sold for scrap, not yet removedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1973 RemovedCab and cabin gone by 1973 (register); firelookout.com says gone 1973Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1973 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 10, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

Slide Mountain is in Lake County, in the Fremont National Forest.1 A forest history quoting a September 1925 item says the telephone line to the peak was completed on August 20, and that its completion went with the erection of a lookout there.2 The register describes a 20-foot platform from the 1920s that stood before the steel tower.3

In 1929 a 47-foot all-steel Aermotor tower with a cab went up, at a cost of $1,022.09.1 The register and the Oregon lookout history give the cab as 7 by 7 feet, while firelookout.com gives 5 by 5.3,1,4 A one-room cabin of 14 by 16 feet was built for living quarters in 1930.1 A 16-by-18-foot garage followed in 1933; at a later date it was dismantled and moved to Paisley.1

A 1942 memo put the tower at 48 feet, one foot more than the 1929 figure.1 In July 1943 a Bend newspaper reported that John Strang Jr. had been serving as the Forest Service lookout on the peak.1 By 1956 every improvement except the tower had been removed.1

A May 1968 letter from the Fremont National Forest says the steel towers on Slide Mountain and Shoestring had been offered to the Army the previous fall. The Army would not take them, so the Forest Service planned to push them over, unbolt the steel, and try to sell the scrap metal.1 In October 1968 a memo said both towers had been sold for scrap but were not yet removed.1 The register and firelookout.com both say the cab and cabin were gone by 1973.3,4

No source I read describes what remains on the summit now, or whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Slide Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/slide-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. History of the Fremont National Forest, Melva Bach, 1990, foresthistory.org, https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/HISTORY-OF-THE-FREMONT-NATIONAL-FOREST.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Slide Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/slide-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Slide Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/slidemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Slide Mountain Lookout 1943
Slide Mountain Lookout 1943 (1943)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Slide Mountain Lookout 1927
Slide Mountain Lookout 1927 (1927)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Slide Mountain Lookout
Slide Mountain LookoutPhoto: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Slide Mountain Lookout site 2005
Slide Mountain Lookout site 2005 (2005)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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, 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: design, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.