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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Oregon

South Beaver Lookout Site

Lincoln County, OR lookout near Waldport, built mid-1930s; cab or parts moved to Stodt Mountain in 1953; registers list the site as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1953; cab or structure went to Stodt Mountain per sources that disagree on how much; FFLOS and firelookout.com say gone

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 towerPole L-4 tower per FFLOS; a 1942 inspector's letter describes a 60-foot log tower with a 14x14 cabinThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
539 ft (164 m)
Agency
Western Lane FPA (FFLOS register)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.48096, −124.04529
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-south-beaver

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 3.6 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. 1934 BuiltConstructed in 1934 per ORWW; weebly also quotes a 1934 'lookout tower constructed' entry. Other entries give a November 1936 raising and a build about 1937Sources: orww.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1942 StaffedActivated March 9, 1942 under the Eugene Filter Center; May 5, 1942 visit found a man and wife living in the cabinSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1953 MovedCab moved to Stodt Lookout (FFLOS); tower relocated to Stodt Mountain (ORWW); structure dismantled and parts salvaged (weebly)Sources: firetower.org, orww.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1953 and 2010
  5. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 16, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

South Beaver was a fire lookout on a knoll near Waldport, in Lincoln County, Oregon.1,2 A May 1934 newspaper item, quoting the supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest, said a lookout house was planned on the hill near Waldport, not far from the coast, and a local history dates its construction to that year.2,3

The sources do not agree on the details. The FFLOS register describes a pole L-4 tower from the 1930s.1 The weebly history quotes a November 1936 report that the tower was framed and raised, and a 1942 inspector's letter that describes a 60-foot log tower with a 14-by-14 cabin, built about 1937.2

The post was activated on March 9, 1942, under the Eugene Filter Center.2 A 1942 letter from an inspector says the post was visited on May 5, when a middle-aged man and his wife were living in the cabin.2

In 1953 the lookout was moved or taken apart, and the sources differ on where it went. The FFLOS register says the cab was moved to Stodt Lookout.1 The Osbornes history says the tower was relocated to Stodt Mountain.3 The weebly history says the structure was dismantled and its salvaged parts used to build the Stodt Mountain lookout.2 The Stodt Mountain register tells a different story: it dates its tower to 1954, says the cab, cables, bolts and stairs came from other Lincoln FPA towers, and says that tower was abandoned in 1972.4

The FFLOS register and firelookout.com both list the South Beaver site as gone.1,5 I found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, or whether visitors may go there.

  1. South Beaver Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/south-beaver-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. South Beaver, Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/south-beaver.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. South Beaver Lookout, Osbornes Project, Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project, http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Lincoln/South_Beaver.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Stodt (Stott) Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/stodt-stott-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. South Beaver Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/southbeaver.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, 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: height, 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, height, status, agency, 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.