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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Tidbits Lookout Site

Also known as Tidbits Mountain

Linn County, OR lookout on Tidbits Mountain: cab dated 1925 or 1926, removed or burned on site in 1967; a 2023 article describes a summit trail (temporarily closed that year by a fire), but no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed or burned in 1967; no source we read describes what remains 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. Summit trail described in a 2023 Bulletin hiking feature, which also notes a temporary closure during the Lookout Fire. No source describes the old site itself.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Tidbits Mountain South Trail, reached by a rough logging road from Blue River

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabSupervisor Hall Special ground cabThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1915
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,185 ft (1,580 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Willamette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.26719, −122.32158
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tidbits

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1912 EventEstablished as a lookout point (Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1912 First staffedJ.A. Moe lookout man since 1912, per a 1922 newspaper quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1915 BuiltRegister: started with an 8-foot platform and a log cabin about 1/8 mile west of the summit; Forest Lookouts dates a lookout structure to c.1914Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1925 Built14 x 14 Supervisor Hall design lookout house, per Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1926 BuiltSupervisor Hall Special ground cab, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1939 StaffedJohn W. Turbyne stationed here, per a 1939 newspaper quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1939 and 1967
  8. 1967 BurnedDisposed of by burning on site, October 27, 1967 (Forest Lookouts); the register says removed and firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1967 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 14, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

Tidbits Mountain lookout stood in the Willamette National Forest, in Linn County, Oregon, about 10 miles northwest of McKenzie Bridge.1 The site sits at 5,185 feet, or 1,580 meters.2

The sources differ on when the lookout began. Forest Lookouts says the site was established as a lookout point in 1912, and that a lookout structure was built there around 1914 by John Short.3 The register's account begins in 1915, when the site had an 8-foot platform and a log cabin roughly an eighth of a mile west of the summit.2

The cab is dated to 1925 or 1926, depending on the source. Forest Lookouts describes a 14-by-14-foot Supervisor Hall design house built in 1925.3 The register and Rex's Fire Lookout Page both describe it as a Supervisor Hall Special, a ground cab built in 1926.2,1 A July 1925 newspaper item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, called Tidbits the seventh and last of the lookout stations being started that week.3

Several newspaper items that Forest Lookouts quotes name people tied to the mountain. A 1922 item said J.A. Moe had been lookout man there since 1912.3 A 1939 item said John W. Turbyne was stationed on the mountain.3

The register says the cab was removed in 1967, and Rex's page says it was destroyed that year.2,1 Forest Lookouts records that on October 27, 1967, the lookout was burned at its location.3 A November 1967 memo quoted on the same page discusses burning three lookouts before the AD-112s reached them, and it lists Tidbits with two others.3

The register recorded the site on May 14, 2011, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.2

A 2023 hiking feature in The Bulletin describes the Tidbits Mountain South Trail, which the article puts about 20 minutes up a rough logging road from Blue River. An editor's note on that article says the trail had temporarily closed because of the Lookout Fire.4 No source we read describes what remains of the lookout on the summit today.

  1. Tidbits Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/or/tidbits.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tidbits Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/tidbits-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tid Bits Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/tidbits-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Take a bite out of Tidbits Mountain in Blue River, The Bulletin, https://bendbulletin.com/?p=502219 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tidbits Lookout Site
Photo: 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: 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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