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Fire lookout · Klamath County, Oregon

Spodue Mountain Lookout

Klamath County Forest Service lookout: a 41-foot tower with an R-6 cab, built 1964-65 by sources that differ by a year, and listed as staffed in recent seasons.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Cherylhill lists the site as accessible to the public; that is not access to the lookout cab itself. No source says the cab is open to visitors.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Register 2021 visit report: directions to the tower are signed
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2026-07)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower15x15-foot R-6 flattop live-in cab with catwalk on a 41-foot treated timber towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1964
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
6,374 ft (1,943 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.59292, −121.26973
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-spodue-mountain

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1963 EventRoad built to the summit with Accelerated Public Works Program funds; a trailer and open platform served the 1963 fire season while the tower was builtSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1964 BuiltWeebly: 42-foot treated timber tower with R-6 cabin constructedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1965 BuiltRegister and FireLookout.com date the tower to 1965; the Register says it first went into service that yearSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1965 and 2003
  5. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003Source: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 2003 and 2018
  7. 2018 StaffedStaffed during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, per the May 2021 Register visit report (one visitor's account)Source: nhlr.org
  8. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Spodue Mountain Lookout stands in Klamath County, Oregon, on the Fremont National Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1 The Register calls it the western-most lookout on that forest and says it first went into service in 1965.1 Its cab is an R-6 flattop with a catwalk on a 41-foot treated timber tower.1 FireLookout.com also gives 1965 and a 41-foot tower.2

Another history page says a road to the summit was built with public works funds in 1963, and that a 42-foot tower with an R-6 cabin was constructed in 1964.3 The same page notes a 50-foot tower under construction in 1963, but the finished tower is recorded at 41 or 42 feet.3,1,2

The Register's May 2021 visit report, by a former staffer, says the author staffed the lookout in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, and that directions to the tower are signed.1 Cherylhill's directory lists it as staffed, and FireLookout.com says it is staffed every summer.4,2 None of these sources names a fire the lookout spotted.1,2,3

The 2021 report describes fairly recent paint and notes that the summit is shared with cell-phone towers.1 The Register still says the lookout remains active.1

Cherylhill lists the site as accessible to the public, but adds that this does not mean visitors can reach the lookout itself.4 Anyone planning a visit should check with the Forest Service first, because none of these sources says the cab is open to visitors.1,4

  1. Spodue Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/spodue-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Spodue Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/spodue.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Spodue Mountain - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/spodue-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, cherylhill.net, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

May 2019 photo
May 2019 photo (2019)Photo: Parker Twiss, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Spodue Mtn. in 2004
Spodue Mtn. in 2004 (2004)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: design, staffing, photos, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.