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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Tom Rock Lookout Site

Linn Fire Patrol lookout built in 1953 on a 10-foot enclosed base; removed or destroyed in the 1970s; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in the 1970s; the register and firelookout.com differ on how

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
Two-story building10-foot enclosed base with an L-4 cab on top; the lookout house is given as 14 x 14 feetThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1953
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
3,486 ft (1,063 m)
Agency
Linn Fire Patrol (listed as Linn FPA)
Land
Unknown
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.70352, −122.48037
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tom-rock

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 3.6 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. 1953 BuiltBuilt in 1953 per the register and firelookout.com; a March 6, 1953 Albany Democrat-Herald item had announced the new stationSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1953 and 1970
  3. 1970 RemovedSources give only the 1970s; the register says removed, firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1970 and 2011
  5. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 14, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  6. 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 Linn Fire Patrol built a lookout on Tom Rock in 1953, south of Mill City.1,2 A March 1953 Albany newspaper item had called it a new station that would protect the Thomas Creek basin and bring the patrol's count to eleven lookouts.2

The register lists a 10-foot enclosed base carrying an L-4 cab.1 Another description puts a 14-foot-square lookout house on a 10-foot enclosed tower.2

The register and Rex's Fire Lookout Page both date the end to the 1970s, but differ on how: the register says it was removed, while Rex's page says it was destroyed.1,3 That same page gives the lookout's life as 1952 to the 1970s, a year earlier than the 1953 start in the other sources.3

No source I found describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, or whether the spot is open to visitors.

  1. Tom Rock Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/tom-rock-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tom Rock, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/tom-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tom Rock Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/or/tomrock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tom Rock Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1966
1966 (1966)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, 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, 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.