FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

West Zigzag Lookout Site

Also known as West Zigzag Mountain

Clackamas County, OR ground site in Mount Hood NF: firefinder and camp in 1929, L-4 cab in the 1930s, staffed 1943-45, removed or destroyed 1966; a hiking guide now describes a hike to it.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1966 per firetower.org and the Forest Lookouts page (undated), destroyed that year per firelookout.com; no source gives a detailed description of what remains

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. Oregon Hikers guide describes it as a hike destination; no closure or permit is described

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Oregon Hikers guide lists the West Zigzag Mountain hike, 11.2 mi with 3,635 ft gain, as reaching the site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on a ground site, with a firefinder and camp in 1929 before itThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,468 ft (1,362 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.34230, −121.88485
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-west-zigzag

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 4.1 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. 1929 EventFirefinder and camp set up, replaced in the 1930s with an L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1943 StaffedFrank Deuell staffed the station 1943 (17.5 weeks), 1944 (17 weeks) and 1945 (11 weeks) per the Forest Lookouts pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1943 and 1966
  4. 1966 RemovedRemoved per firetower.org; destroyed per firelookout.com; the Forest Lookouts page says Removed without a dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1966 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 21, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

West Zigzag is a lookout site in Clackamas County, Oregon, within the Mount Hood National Forest.1 Firelookout.com places it about 10 miles west of Mount Hood.2 Firetower.org gives its elevation as 4,468 feet, or 1,362 meters.1

Firetower.org dates a firefinder and camp on the site to 1929, with an L-4 cab taking their place in the 1930s.1,2 A Mount Hood history page says the two Zigzag lookouts were built sometime in the 1930s, and that West Zigzag was an L-4 ground cabin on a ridge with a view to the south.3

Firetower.org names brothers Pat Lynch and Dennis Lynch as lookouts there, without dates.1 The Forest Lookouts page credits Frank Deuell, a Trails Club of Oregon member, with staffing the station for 17.5 weeks in 1943, 17 in 1944 and 11 in 1945.4 The page calls it an AWS station and does not spell out the abbreviation.4

Firetower.org says the lookout was removed in 1966, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page labels the site "Removed" without a date.4 The firelookout.org list classes it as a ground site and marks it gone.5 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register recorded the site on September 21, 2010, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.1

A hiking guide describes the site as a destination on the west end of the Zigzag Mountain ridge, with great views over the Zigzag River valley, though it notes there is no view of Mount Hood from there.6 A Mount Hood history page says the footings are still there, in a line between its West Zigzag and East Zigzag passages that does not name either site.3

No source we read describes the site's condition in detail. We could not confirm vehicle access, since the guide describes a hike, so check with the Mount Hood National Forest before you go.

  1. West Zigzag Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/west-zigzag-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. West Zigzag Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/westzigzag.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fire Lookouts, Mount Hood History, http://portlandhistory.net/mounthoodhistory/category/fire-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. West Zigzag Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/west-zigzag-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Oregon lookout list, Fire Lookout, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. West Zigzag Lookout, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/West_Zigzag_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

West Zigzag Lookout circa 1957 (Pat Lynch photo
West Zigzag Lookout circa 1957 (Pat Lynch photo (1957)Photo: Dennis Lynch, 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: 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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