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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

White Point Lookout

A 40-foot tower from 1951 was replaced in 1974 by a 30-foot timber tower on an Oregon Dept. of Forestry site; unstaffed since 2016, now a remote-camera site.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. The spur road off Road 290 is gated, and the lookout is 0.1 miles past the gate. The state owns and operates the site, so ask ODF before visiting.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Road 290 was overgrown in 2023; the lookout is 0.1 miles past a gate on the spur road.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot treated timber tower with a 14-by-14-foot flat-top cab, per the register; another source says 28 feetThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
4,961 ft (1,512 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.77073, −122.55270
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-white-point

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1951 BuiltFirst tower on the site: 40-foot tower with a 14-by-14-foot house; cost $2,143.17 per the Southwest District annual reportSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net, nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1951 and 1974
  3. 1974 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1974 Replaced by a new structureThe 40-foot tower was replaced by a 30-foot treated timber tower with a 14-by-14-foot flat-top cab; the register dates the current structure to 1974, and another source says the tower was recycled from Burnt PeakSources: cherylhill.net, nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1974 and 2003
  6. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered March 31, 2003Source: nhlr.org
  7. 2016 Last staffedSummer 2016 was the last season in active service, per a visit report on the register; Fire Lookout says staffed into the 2010sSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  8. 2017 AlteredCameras installed on the tower by summer 2017; no longer staffedSource: nhlr.org
  9. 2022 EventBreak-in; some camera equipment stolen. The source says 'last August' in a post dated 2023, so the year is inferred as August 2022Source: cherylhill.net
  10. 2023 Condition assessmentVisited July 12, 2023; found standing as a remotely monitored camera siteSource: cherylhill.net
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

White Point sits on a ridge in Jackson County, Oregon, about two miles south of Halls Point Lookout.1,2 The Oregon Department of Forestry owns and runs the site, even though it sits inside the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.3

The first tower went up in 1951.3 It was a 40-foot tower with a 14-by-14-foot house, and a Southwest District annual report lists its cost as $2,143.17.4 In 1974 the state replaced it.3 The register describes the new structure as a 30-foot treated timber tower with a 14-by-14-foot flat-top cab.1,3 A contract that year set a price of $1,500 for building the lookout, and one account says the tower itself was recycled from the Burnt Peak lookout.4

Sources disagree on the height of the 1974 tower. The register, Cheryl Hill's page and Fire Lookout all give 30 feet, while the Oregon Forest Lookouts page gives 28 feet.1,3,2,4 This story uses 30 feet.

The tower was staffed into the 2010s.2 A 2016 visit report on the register says that summer was the last year it was in active service.1 Cameras went up by summer 2017, and the tower has not been staffed since.1,3

I found no source describing a fire the lookout spotted, so this story has no fire record to tell.

Cheryl Hill visited on July 12, 2023.3 She reported that the lookout is now a remotely monitored camera site.3 She also reports that part of the equipment was stolen when the lookout was broken into the August before her visit.3

Getting there is not simple. The spur road off Road 290 is gated, and the lookout sits 0.1 miles past that gate.3 The forest road was overgrown in 2023.3 Because the state owns the site, check with the Oregon Department of Forestry before you go, and do not climb the tower.

  1. White Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/white-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. White Point Fire Lookout Tower, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/whitepoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. White Point - Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2023/08/21/white-point/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. White Point, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/white-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of White Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of White Point Lookout
Photo: Jeffrey Naas, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
White Point L.O.
White Point L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1974
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1951
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1974

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: height, photos, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.