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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Tenas Peak Lookout Site

Douglas County lookout: a 20-foot pole L-4 tower dated 1939 and removed in 1966; a 2016 hiking blog reports four concrete footings left on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1966; a 2016 hiking blog reports only four concrete footings left on 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. Hiking trail from the Kelsay Valley Trailhead; Mount Thielsen Wilderness restrictions apply.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
From Kelsay Valley Trailhead: 2.5 miles on North Umpqua Trail 1414, then 4.5 miles up Tolo Creek Trail 1466 to the Tenas Peak Trail #1445 junction

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1939
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,558 ft (1,999 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.32412, −122.03600
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tenas-peak

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 4.3 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. 1920 EventSite used as a lookout in the 1920s (decade only; Oregon Lookouts found no details)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1920 and 1939
  3. 1939 Built20-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; the Oregon Lookouts page gives only 'after 1936'Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, vanmarmot.org
  4. No record between 1939 and 1966
  5. 1966 RemovedTower removed; firelookout.com says destroyed; four concrete footings reported in 2016Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, vanmarmot.org
  6. No record between 1966 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered 21 April 2011Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Tenas Peak is an old cinder cone just west of the Cascade Crest, on the northwest corner of the Mount Thielsen Wilderness in Douglas County.1,2,3 The Umpqua National Forest manages the trail to the summit, which was once a Forest Service fire lookout.2

The sources do not agree on when the lookout began. The Oregon Lookouts page says the site was used as a lookout in the 1920s but gives no details, and that a 20-foot round timber tower with an L-4 cab went up at an undetermined date after 1936.4 The register, firelookout.com and a 2016 hiking blog date a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab to 1939, which fits that later estimate.3,5,1

The tower was removed in 1966.3,1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.5 A 2016 hiking blog says four concrete footings are all that remain on the summit.1

The Forest Service describes the hike from the Kelsay Valley Trailhead: 2.5 miles on the North Umpqua Trail, then 4.5 miles up the Tolo Creek Trail to the Tenas Peak trail junction.2 Wilderness rules apply.2 The Forest Service says the summit has excellent views, including of Cinnamon Butte Lookout, which still provides fire surveillance in summer.2 A 2016 blog says that view means walking off the summit to find a gap in the trees, which have grown up since the old lookout's day.1

  1. Hiking to Tenas Peak near the Mount Thielsen Wilderness, Van Marmot (blog, 2016), https://vanmarmot.org/2016/08/15/tenas-peak-mount-thielsen-wilderness-14-aug-2016/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tenas Peak Trail #1445, Umpqua National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/umpqua/recreation/trails/tenas-peak-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tenas Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/tenas-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Tenas Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/tenas-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Tenas Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/tenaspeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Tenas Peak Lookout 1939 - 1966
Tenas Peak Lookout 1939 - 1966 (1939)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, 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: design, 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, 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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