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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Stahlman Point Lookout Site

A 1948 L-4 cabin on a short tower above Detroit Lake, removed or destroyed in 1966; a foundation remains and the trail to the site is open.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1966 (register) or destroyed that year (firelookout.com); a hiking guide says the tower is demolished and its foundation is at 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. Reached on Stahlman Point Trail #3449, which the Forest Service lists as open.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Out and back from the Stahlman Point Trailhead off Blowout Road (FR 10). The Forest Service says the last 200 feet are steep and rocky.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabin on a short tower (register); firelookout.com says L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1948
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,045 ft (928 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Willamette National Forest (Detroit Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.71063, −122.13415
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-stahlman-point

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1947 EventPlanned lookout; a Eugene paper said work was to start July 1, and trail crews were already busy preparing the summitSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1948 BuiltL-4 cabin on a short towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1952 StaffedKnown lookout personnel: Clara YoungSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1953 StaffedFirst lookout on duty that season in the Detroit districtSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1955 StaffedForest guard from Marion Forks sent to replace the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1966 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1966 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: January 4, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Stahlman Point sits just above Detroit Lake, about two miles south of the town of Detroit, in the Willamette National Forest.1,2 The register describes an L-4 cabin perched on a short tower, put up in 1948 and taken away in 1966. From there a lookout could see up the valleys that drain into the lake, areas the mountaintop lookouts could not see.1

A Eugene paper reported in May 1947 that a lookout was planned for the point, with work set to start on July 1.3 The register dates the cabin to 1948, a year after that planned start. The same clipping says trail crews were already busy preparing the summit, but no source we read says when construction actually began.1,3

The cabin had lookouts in the early 1950s.2,3 Firelookout.com lists Clara Young as known lookout personnel in 1952.2 In July of that year The Oregon Statesman called her a veteran fire watcher in the Detroit ranger district.3 In June 1953 the same paper reported that the Detroit district's first lookout of the season had manned Stahlman Point.3 In September 1955 a forest guard from Marion Forks was brought in as a stand-in while the regular lookout went back to school.3

The register says the cabin was removed in 1966, but firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, so the two sources disagree on how it ended.1,2 A hiking guide says the tower has since been demolished, though its foundation remains at the summit as a spot for group lunches.4

The Forest Service lists Stahlman Point Trail #3449 as open, and says it ends at the former lookout site.5 The same notice adds that the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires reached the area around the trail.5 The hiking guide describes the final climb as steep and rocky, and says the summit view takes in a wide swath of damage from the 2020 Lionshead Fire.4 The trail starts at the Stahlman Point Trailhead, reached from Highway 22 by Blowout Road (FR 10).4

  1. Stahlman Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/stahlman-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Stahlman Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/stahlmanpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Stahlman Point, Forest Lookouts of Oregon (Linn County entry, with newspaper clippings), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/stahlman-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Stahlman Point Hike, Oregon Hikers field guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Stahlman_Point_Hike (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Stahlman Point Trail #3449, Willamette National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/willamette/recreation/trails/stahlman-point-trail-3449 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Stahlman Point Lookout 1948 - 1966
Stahlman Point Lookout 1948 - 1966 (1948)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Steps 9/20/2000
Steps 9/20/2000 (2000)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Stahlman Point Lookout site 2000
Stahlman Point Lookout site 2000 (2000)Photo: Irene Potter, via 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, what it is built of, 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: 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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