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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Swastika Mountain Lookout Site

Lane County, OR 20-foot lookout built by the CCC in 1933 and removed about 1957; the peak is now named Mount Halo.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed or destroyed about 1957; no source describes what remains; the peak was renamed Mount Halo

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
Cab on a tower20-foot round fir timber tower with hip-roofed cab (Oregon Forest Lookouts); the register calls it a 20-foot pole L-5 towerThe design: L-5
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
4,193 ft (1,278 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umpqua National Forest); tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.69224, −122.60335
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-swastika-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 3.5 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. 1933 Built20-foot round fir timber tower built by the CCC with a hip-roofed cab; materials packed in by horse over nine miles; cost $200Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 EventPanorama photographs taken by James Rittenhouse on March 13, 1934Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1957
  4. 1957 RemovedTower removed about 1957 (register and Oregon Forest Lookouts); firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1957 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 30, 2011 as FFLOS US 913, OR 280Source: firetower.org
  7. 2022 EventOregon Geographic Names Board confirms the name will change from Swastika Mountain, to avoid association with the Nazi PartySource: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 2023 EventNew name Mount Halo chosen April 13, 2023Source: en.wikipedia.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.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a 20-foot round fir timber lookout on this Lane County peak in 1933.1,2 It had a hip-roofed cab, and the materials needed a nine-mile horse pack haul.2 The tower cost $200 to build, and a spring lay about a quarter mile to the southeast.2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register places it 2 1/4 miles northwest of Holland Point.1 The register and firelookout.com call it a 20-foot pole L-5 tower, which differs a little from the Oregon Forest Lookouts description.1,3,2

The same Oregon Forest Lookouts page logs panoramic photos that James Rittenhouse made on March 13, 1934.2

Sources date the removal to about 1957. The register says the tower was removed, firelookout.com says it was destroyed, and the Oregon Forest Lookouts page says the lookout was removed around 1957.1,3,2 Wikipedia gives the 1950s as the end of the tower's time on the summit.4

The peak is now called Mount Halo.4 Wikipedia reports that in August 2022 the Oregon Geographic Names Board confirmed a rename, citing the old name's association with the Nazi Party, and that the new name was chosen on April 13, 2023.4 The same article puts the summit inside Umpqua National Forest.4 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout on the summit today.

  1. Swastika Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/swastika-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Swastika Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/swastika-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Swastika Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/swastikamtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mount Halo, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Halo (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Swastika 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, 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: 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, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.