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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Swamp Mountain Lookout Site

Linn County, OR lookout: a 1949 skid house, a 1959 two-story cab, ended by 1969 or 1970 depending on source; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Dismantled in 1969 (Forest Lookouts page) or removed or destroyed in 1970 (register, firelookout.com); no source describes the site today

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
Two-story buildingTwo-story L-4 cab built in 1959 as a 14 x 14 lookout house atop an enclosed garage; it replaced a 1949 skid-mounted house with cupolaThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1949
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,329 ft (1,320 m)
Agency
Santiam Lumber Company (cooperator); Oregon Dept. of Forestry named on the register
Land
Unknown
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.31776, −122.44020
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-swamp-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 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. 1949 BuiltSkid-mounted house with cupola (register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1952 EventAll other lookouts removed except the cooperative lookout on Swamp Mountain (Albany Democrat-Herald, as quoted)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1954 Last staffedThe last lookout left open closed for the season (Albany Democrat-Herald, as quoted)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1959 BuiltSantiam Lumber Company built a 14 x 14 lookout house atop an enclosed garage; the register calls it a two-story L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1969 RemovedLookout dismantled and usable material moved to the Green Peter lookout site (Forest Lookouts page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1970 Destroyedfirelookout.com says the cab was destroyedSource: firelookout.com
  7. 1970 RemovedRegister says the two-story L-4 cab was removedSource: firetower.org
  8. No record between 1970 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 13, 2011 as US 994, OR 352; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Swamp Mountain sits about 17 miles east-southeast of Sweet Home, in Linn County, Oregon.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says a skid-mounted house with a cupola was built here in 1949, and that a two-story L-4 cab replaced it in 1959.2 The Forest Lookouts page says Santiam Lumber Company built the 1959 structure as a 14 x 14 lookout house atop an enclosed garage.3 The two descriptions appear to match, although the page does not use the register's term.2,3

The Forest Lookouts page quotes Albany Democrat-Herald reports from the 1950s.3 In October 1952 the paper reported that the cooperative lookout on Swamp Mountain was the only one not removed.3 In October 1954 it reported that the lookout still open had shut for the season, citing Bill Shumate, the Linn County Fire Patrol dispatcher.3

The sources differ on when the lookout ended. The Forest Lookouts page says it was dismantled in 1969, and its usable material went to the Green Peter lookout site.3 The register says the cab was removed in 1970, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2,1 We could not reconcile the dates, so both are given here.

No source we read describes what remains on the mountain today, or whether the public can reach it.2,1,3

  1. Swamp Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/swampmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Swamp Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/swamp-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Swamp Mountain - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/swamp-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Swamp Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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: 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, staffing, 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.