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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Substitute Point Lookout Site

Lane County L-4 cab built 1933 on Willamette NF; a lookout house was in use by 1931; fate given as gone by 1963 or burned in 1968, sources differ.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1963 per two sources; Oregon Lookouts says it was disposed of by burning in 1968

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cab, gable roof on short wooden postsThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,344 ft (1,934 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.11336, −121.89642
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-substitute-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 3.9 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. 1931 StaffedLookout fireman Al Caldwell at the site; a new fire finder blocked by a corner postSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 EventItem describes a lookout station on Substitute PointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab, gable roof on short wooden postsSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1963
  5. 1963 RemovedGone by 1963 per firetower.org and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1968 BurnedOregon Lookouts says the lookout was disposed of by burningSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1968 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFormer Fire Lookout Sites register, US 993Source: 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.

Substitute Point is a former lookout site in Lane County, Oregon, about 12 miles east-southeast of McKenzie Bridge, on the Willamette National Forest.1,2 The cab the sources date to 1933 was an L-4 design.1,2 Oregon Lookouts describes it as a gable-roofed house standing on short timber posts.3

Items quoted on Oregon Lookouts describe a lookout house on the site in 1931, and a lookout station in 1932, both before the 1933 cab.3 The sources do not say what became of that earlier building.3 In August 1931 the lookout fireman, Al Caldwell, was hurt on the job.3 A new fire finder he was using was blocked by a corner post of his house, and he tried to rotate the house on its footings to clear it.3 He wrenched his back.3 The item, quoted from the publication Six Twenty-Six, said work was under way on a sliding platform for the finder.3

The sources disagree about how the site ended.1,2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's register and firelookout.com both say the cab was gone by 1963.1,2 Oregon Lookouts gives 1968 and says the lookout was disposed of by burning.3 The register recorded the site on May 13, 2011.1

Today, no source I could find describes what, if anything, remains at the site, or whether visitors can reach it. The register places it in Lane County on the Willamette National Forest, and that is the only current detail available.1

  1. Substitute Point Lookout Site (US 993), Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/substitute-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Substitute Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/substitutepoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Substitute Point - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/substitute-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Substitute Point Lookout 1933 - 1963
Substitute Point Lookout 1933 - 1963 (1933)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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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