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Fire lookout · Yamhill County, Oregon

Spirit Mountain Lookout Site

Oregon Dept. of Forestry three-story frame lookout built 1958 on Spirit Mountain; removed or destroyed 1973; mountain privately owned today.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Mountain is owned by Stimson Lumber Company; Grand Ronde tribal members gather near the summit with the company's permission. No source describes public access.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1973; no source describes a standing structure or remains at the site today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Three-story buildingThree-story frame lookout with an enclosed L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1958
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
1,772 ft (540 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Yamhill County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.11129, −123.60031
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-spirit-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 3.8 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. 1958 BuiltThree-story frame lookout with an enclosed L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1958 EventAbout a quarter mile of road and a new garage combination building built in August and September; material cost $2,000Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1961 EventDoors and windows damaged by vandals and repairedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1967 EventConsiderable repair work needed for vandalism from the previous winterSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1972 EventNational Geodetic Survey station description refers to the lookout house, about 30 feet highSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1973 Removedfiretower.org says removed in 1973; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1973; district history gives only a 1970s date and says removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1973 and 2010
  8. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register as US 738, OR 147 on November 16, 2010Source: firetower.org
  9. 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.

Spirit Mountain lies about 18 miles northwest of Dallas in Yamhill County, Oregon, and the lookout site is listed at 1,772 feet.1,2 The Oregon Department of Forestry administered the site, and in 1958 it put up a three-story frame lookout with an enclosed cab that the register calls an L-4 cab.1,2 That same year, the district's annual report says, about a quarter mile of road and a new garage combination building went in, at a material cost of $2,000.3

Vandals caused trouble early on.3 In 1961 they damaged the doors and windows, which had to be repaired, and a 1967 note says considerable work was needed to repair vandalism from the winter before.3

A 1972 survey description refers to the lookout house, which it puts at about 30 feet high.3

The fate is less clear. The register says the tower was removed in 1973, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year. The district history gives only a date in the 1970s and says it was removed.1,2,3

The site went onto the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on November 16, 2010.1

Today the mountain remains privately owned.4 The Oregon Encyclopedia says Stimson Lumber Company still owns it, and that Grand Ronde tribal members meet each year in a broad clearing near the top, with the company's permission.4 The encyclopedia also counts the mountain among the sacred places of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.4 None of the sources describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout, and none says the public may visit. Please treat the mountain as private land and stay off it unless the owner or the tribe invites you.

  1. Spirit Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/spirit-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Spirit Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/spiritmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Spirit Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Oregon lookouts site, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/spirit-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Spirit Mountain, The Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/spirit_mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Spirit Mountain Lookout 1961
Spirit Mountain Lookout 1961 (1961)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Spirit Mountain Lookout 1958 - 1973
Spirit Mountain Lookout 1958 - 1973 (1958)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Spirit Mountain Lookout 1969
Spirit Mountain Lookout 1969 (1969)Photo: 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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: 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, access, 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.