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Fire lookout · Tillamook County, Oregon

Square Top Lookout Site

Tillamook County lookout: a 30-foot pole L-4 tower built in 1936 and removed or destroyed around 1948; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed around 1948 per the register; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1948

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 tower30-foot pole L-4 tower with a 14x14 cab (Forest Lookouts describes it as a round timber tower)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1936
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
2,115 ft (645 m)
Agency
Oregon Dept. of Forestry (register and firelookout.com); Siuslaw National Forest per Forest Lookouts
Land
Federal land
Location
Tillamook County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.29800, −123.63507
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-square-top

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 3.9 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. 1934 EventPanorama photographs taken at the site on March 20, 1934, per Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 Built30-foot tower raised; the house was not yet built in December 1936Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 EventPanorama photographs taken at the site on May 28, 1937, per Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1948 RemovedRegister says removed around 1948; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1948; Forest Lookouts gives c.1948 for removalSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1948 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered November 16, 2010 on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Square Top, in Tillamook County, got a fire lookout in 1936.1,2 The register describes a 30-foot pole L-4 tower.1 Forest Lookouts describes a round timber tower, 30 feet tall, with a cab measuring 14 by 14.2 By December that year the tower was up, but the house was still unbuilt.2

The Forest Lookouts history also lists panorama photographs taken at the site in March 1934 and again in May 1937.2

Sources disagree on how the tower ended. The register says it was removed around 1948.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed in 1948.3 The Forest Lookouts history gives about 1948 for its removal.2 All three date the end to about the same time.1,3,2

The register and firelookout.com both name the Oregon Department of Forestry as the administering agency.1,3 Forest Lookouts instead places the site in the Siuslaw National Forest, at 3S-8W-23.2 The sources do not settle which is right.

No source we found describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can visit it. The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.4

  1. Square Top Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/square-top-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Square Top, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/square-top.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Square Top Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/squaretop.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Square Top Lookout 1936 - 1948
Square Top Lookout 1936 - 1948 (1936)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, 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, 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.