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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Squaw Mountain Lookout Site

Squaw Mountain (now Tumala Mountain) lookout, Clackamas County, OR: 1916 frame cabin, staffed into the late 1950s, removed 1966. No source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Deactivated 1964, removed (1966 per two sources). The Outbound says it once stood atop the summit.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Hiking route from Twin Springs Trailhead, per The Outbound; no agency page checked for current access

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 3.6 miles round trip from Twin Springs Trailhead; the trail meets an old service road near the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cab1916 frame cabin; 1930s replacement given as a 12x12 ft cab on a pole platform tower, or an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1916
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
4,771 ft (1,454 m)
Agency
Mount Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.23035, −122.04114
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-squaw-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 4.2 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. 1916 BuiltFrame cabin, per firetower.org and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1930 Replaced by a new structure1930s replacement cab; design disputed (12x12 ft cab on pole platform tower vs L-4 cab); decade only in sourcesSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1932 RebuiltNew standard lookout house 14 ft square, enclosed in glass (July 31, 1932 report); lightning-safeguard construction reported July 24, 1932Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1932 StaffedKenneth Dart worked as lookout man for the summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1935 StaffedElmer Klutke stationed on Squaw Mountain lookouts during fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1935 and 1957
  7. 1957 AlteredCatwalk built, lookout painted, two new shutters installed (1957 district report)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1957 StaffedManned 25 days (1957 district report, posted February 1958)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1958 EventLast half mile of access road improved (entry dated January 15, 1959; 1958 report)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1964 AbandonedOregon Lookouts history: deactivated; then marked removed with no dateSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1966 RemovedRemoval year per firetower.org and firelookout.com; Oregon Lookouts gives no removal yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  12. No record between 1966 and 2010
  13. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 20, 2010 as US 649, OR 81Source: firetower.org
  14. 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.

The lookout stood on the summit of Squaw Mountain.1 In 2007 the Board on Geographic Names renamed the peak Tumala Mountain.2 It lies in the Mount Hood National Forest, near Estacada.2

The lookout began as a frame cabin built in 1916.3,4 A 1918 newspaper described the station as a 12-by-12 building about ten feet high, part lumber and part glass, with telephones and a revolving lamp.5 Sources disagree about the 1930s replacement.3,4 One describes a 12-by-12 cab on a pole platform tower, and another an L-4 cab.3,4 In July 1932 newspapers reported a new house, 14 feet square and enclosed in glass. Another report that month said the station was being heavily built up as protection against lightning.5

Staffing is recorded in the 1930s and again in the 1950s.5 In summer 1932 Kenneth Dart, a Hubbard schoolteacher, worked there as a lookout man.5 In 1935 the Statesman Journal reported that Elmer Klutke had been stationed on Squaw Mountain during fire season.5 A 1957 district report says the lookout was manned for 25 days that year, and that a catwalk was built and two new shutters were installed.5

The Oregon Lookouts history lists the lookout as deactivated in 1964, then marked removed with no date given.5 Firetower.org and firelookout.com both date its removal to 1966.3,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's county list also marks it Gone.6

No readable source I found describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.3,4,5 The Outbound, a hiking guide, calls the summit the site of a former fire lookout.1 It describes a 3.6-mile round trip from the Twin Springs Trailhead. Near the summit the trail meets an old service road that once led to the lookout.1 The guide says the lookout once stood atop the summit and does not describe anything standing there now.1 No agency page I checked says whether the route is open to visitors.

  1. Tumala (Squaw) Mountain, Clackamas County, Oregon, The Outbound, https://www.theoutbound.com/oregon/hiking/climb-squaw-mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tumala Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumala_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Squaw Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/squaw-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Squaw Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/or/squawmtn35.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Squaw Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/squaw-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Oregon Lookouts (by County), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/or-co/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Squaw Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

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

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