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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Three Pyramids Lookout Site

Willamette NF ground site, Three Pyramids, Linn County, OR; L-5 cab built 1934, burned on site 1967 or removed/destroyed 1968; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the cab was removed in 1968; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1968; an Oregon Lookouts page says it was disposed of by burning on site on October 27, 1967. 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-5 cabThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,618 ft (1,712 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.50506, −122.07581
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-three-pyramids

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 3.7 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt in 1934 as an L-5 cab per the register and firelookout.com; Oregon Lookouts page describes a 10 x 10 L-5 lookout house constructed and staffed by the CCCSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 EventPanorama photographs taken by Rittenhouse (June 4, 1934)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 StaffedDescribed as the other emergency lookout in the Cascadia district (Albany Democrat-Herald, July 14, 1939); emergency staffingSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1939 and 1967
  5. 1967 BurnedDisposed of by burning on site, October 27, 1967 (Oregon Lookouts page); conflicts with the 1968 removal and destruction datesSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1967 EventMemo dated November 3, 1967: Regional Office verbal approval, given in a call on October 25, to burn down three lookouts (Pyramids, Tidbits, Chimney Peak) before AD-112s would reach themSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1968 Destroyedfirelookout.com says the cab was destroyed in 1968; conflicts with 'removed' and with the 1967 burning dateSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1968 RemovedRegister says the cab was removed in 1968Source: firetower.org
  9. No record between 1968 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 14, 2011 as FFLOS US 995, OR 353Source: firetower.org
  11. 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 Three Pyramids lookout stood in Linn County, Oregon, on the Willamette National Forest, about 15 miles south-southeast of Detroit.1,2

An Oregon lookouts history says the 10 by 10 L-5 lookout house was constructed and staffed by the CCC in 1934, and the register and firelookout.com also date the L-5 cab to 1934.3,1,2 Panorama photographs were taken there on June 4, 1934.3 In July 1939 an Albany Democrat-Herald item described Pyramids as one of two emergency lookouts in the Cascadia district.3

On October 27, 1967, the lookout was burned on site.3 A memo dated November 3, 1967 says the Regional Office gave verbal approval on October 25 to burn down three lookouts before AD-112s would reach them. The same memo names Pyramids, Tidbits and Chimney Peak as the three lookouts involved.3

The register says the cab was removed in 1968, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, a year after the October 1967 burning date on the Oregon lookouts page.1,2,3

The register lists the site as a former lookout site, administered by the U.S. Forest Service.1 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Three Pyramids Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/three-pyramids-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Three Pyramids Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/threepyramids.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Three Pyramids, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/three-pyramids.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Three Pyramids 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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.