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Fire lookout · Josephine County, Oregon

Tennessee Mountain Lookout Site

Siskiyou NF ground site near Cave Junction, OR; L-4 cab built 1934, removed or destroyed in 1965; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the cab was removed in 1965; firelookout.com says destroyed that year. No source describes the site now.

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 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,227 ft (984 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Siskiyou National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Josephine County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.20364, −123.70478
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tennessee-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 3.8 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 EventCrow's nest and camp developed in the 1920s, before the cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1931 EventSiskiyou Bulletin, November 1931: Tennessee Mountain road and telephone line 'now under construction'; conflicts with the 1936 road startSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1932 FireJune 9, 1932: lookout saw lightning near Merlin, about 25 miles away; smoke picked up six minutes later where the strike was seen. The source does not say how large the fire becameSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1932 EventJuly 1932 Siskiyou Bulletin describes 'the new Tennessee Mountain Lookout station' used to train sixteen guard-school lookouts; this predates the 1934 build date given elsewhereSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab built in 1934, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1936 EventRoad to the lookout started (per the timeline); a November 1931 item already describes it under constructionSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1937 EventRoad to the lookout completedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1941 StaffedStaffed 135 days; reported to the Redwood Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1942 EventActivated March 9, 1942 as an Aircraft Warning Service station under the Roseburg Filter CenterSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1943 EventInactivated October 16, 1943 with recommendations to retain; no AWS improvements were involvedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1952 StaffedCecil Brink spent the summer on the lookout; an August notice said Orlen Pickle would replace him for two weeksSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 1958 EventSouthwest Oregon District annual report: building maintenance, general repairsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  13. 1959 EventSouthwest Oregon District annual report: repaired shutters and some paintingSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  14. 1965 Destroyedfirelookout.com says the cab was destroyed in 1965; conflicts with the register's 'removed'Source: firelookout.com
  15. 1965 RemovedRegister says the cab was removed in 1965Source: firetower.org
  16. No record between 1965 and 2011
  17. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 21, 2011 as FFLOS US 926, OR 284Source: firetower.org
  18. 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 Tennessee Mountain lookout stood about four miles northwest of Cave Junction in Josephine County, Oregon, within the Siskiyou National Forest.1,2 The site had a crow's nest and camp in the 1920s, and the L-4 cab that came later was built in 1934.2,1 A July 1932 item in the Siskiyou Bulletin, however, already wrote about "the new Tennessee Mountain Lookout station," two years before that date, so it is unclear whether that 1932 station and the 1934 cab were the same structure.3

A road to the lookout is recorded as started in 1936 and completed in 1937, yet a November 1931 Siskiyou Bulletin item already described the road and telephone line as under construction.3 The station also served as a training site for sixteen lookouts from the guard school.3 In June 1932 the lookout saw lightning near Merlin, about twenty-five miles off, and smoke appeared at the strike site six minutes later.3

In 1941 the lookout was staffed for 135 days and filed its reports with the Redwood Ranger Station.3 From March 9, 1942 to October 16, 1943 the site was an Aircraft Warning Service station under the Roseburg Filter Center.3 When it was inactivated in October 1943, the report recommended keeping it.3 In 1952 Cecil Brink spent the summer on the lookout, and an August notice said Orlen Pickle would temporarily replace him for two weeks.3 A 1952 newspaper item also reported a black bear and her two cubs walking within 75 feet of the tower, though the lookout had no fires to report.3

Maintenance records from 1958 and 1959 list general repairs, then shutters and some painting.3

The register says the cab was removed in 1965, but firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2,1

The register lists the spot as a former site, administered by the U.S. Forest Service.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains on the ground today, or whether the spot is open to visitors.

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

Photos

Photo of Tennessee 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: 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.