FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Klamath County, Oregon

Sugarpine Mountain Lookout

Built 1958 at Fort Klamath, airlifted to Sugarpine Mountain in 1970; staffed each summer, drive-up, still standing; NHLR-registered 2022.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Drive-up summit on the Winema National Forest; the statewide standing-lookout list marks it accessible to the public.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
A 2025 visitor reported an easy drive to the summit.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2025-06-19)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot open steel X-brace tower with a 13x13 CL-100 cabThe design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,402 ft (1,951 m)
Agency
US Forest Service (Winema National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.11709, −121.60746
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-sugarpine-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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1930 EventSummit first used as a camp lookout site, in the 1930s (no exact year given).Source: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1930 and 1958
  3. 1958 BuiltBuilt at Fort Klamath as a 20-foot open steel tower with a 13x13 cab. This is the date for the structure at its original site.Source: nhlr.org
  4. 1969 Event32 hours of road and lookout site construction at Sugarpine Mountain.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1970 MovedTower and cab airlifted from Fort Klamath to the Sugarpine Mountain summit.Sources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1973 EventHerald and News reported a lookout might be stationed by mid-May if dry weather continued.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1983 StaffedWinema National Forest let the fire-watch job by contract for the first time; before, lookout personnel were hired.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1983 and 2022
  9. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register as US 1641 on July 6, 2022.Source: nhlr.org
  10. 2025 StaffedStaffed in summer at the June 2025 visit.Source: cherylhill.net
  11. 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.

The tower that stands on Sugarpine Mountain first stood at Fort Klamath.1 The register says it was built there in 1958 as a 20-foot open steel tower with a 13-by-13 cab on top.1 In 1969, 32 hours of road and lookout site construction were logged at Sugarpine Mountain.2 In 1970 the tower and cab were airlifted from Fort Klamath to the summit.2,3

Sources differ on how far back the site goes.1,3 The firelookout.com page says the summit was first used as a camp lookout in the 1930s, and that its first permanent structure arrived in 1970.3 The register, by contrast, dates the structure itself to 1958, before its move.1

In 1973 the Herald and News reported that a lookout might be stationed on the peak by mid-May if the dry weather held.2 Before 1983 the Winema National Forest hired its lookout staff directly.2 That year it let the fire-watch job out by contract for the first time, with watch hours from 10 am to 6 pm, June 1 through September 30.2 The winning bidder had to bring personal gear and transportation.2

The National Historic Lookout Register listed the tower on July 6, 2022.1 The tower still stands, and a lookout is posted there each summer.3,4 A 2025 visitor found an easy drive to the summit and a lookout on duty who greeted them.4 A statewide list of standing lookouts marks the site as accessible to the public.5

  1. Sugarpine Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/sugarpine-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Sugarpine Mountain, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/sugarpine-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Sugarpine Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/sugarpinemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Sugarpine Mountain, Every Lookout in Oregon, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2025/06/19/sugarpine-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Sugarpine Mountain Lookout - 2016
Sugarpine Mountain Lookout - 2016 (2016)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Sugarpine Mountain Lookout
Photo: Danielle Sullivan, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sugarpine Mtn. L.O.
Sugarpine Mtn. L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1958
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1930
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1970

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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: 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 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.