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Fire lookout · Clatsop County, Oregon

Wickiup Mountain Lookout Site

Gone Clatsop County lookout: tower built 1940 on ridge south of summit, pole tower 1955, emergency-only from 1960s, reportedly burned after a planned museum move.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone. Keith Argow (Ph.D., CF) says the tower was taken apart and burned around the time of a planned move to the Camp 18 owner's museum

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
Cab on a tower1940 tower; L-4 cab added 1951; pole L-4 tower from 1955 (40 ft per FFLOS, 50 ft wooden per firelookout.com)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1940
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
2,522 ft (769 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Clatsop County, Oregon
Coordinates
46.07946, −123.58682 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wickiup-mountain

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 3.9 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. 1940 BuiltTower built on the ridgetop about 1.5 miles south of the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1951 AlteredL-4 cab added to the towerSource: firetower.org
  3. 1952 StaffedPhoto caption: lookout painted by Fire Warden Richard Spray and crew; the woman on the right was the lookoutSource: firetower.org
  4. 1955 Replaced by a new structure40-foot pole L-4 tower replaced the tower and cab (firelookout.com says 50-foot wooden tower)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1960 EventUsed for emergencies only; source says beginning in the 1960s, so the year is approximateSource: firetower.org
  6. No record between 1960 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 17, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

A tower went up on Wickiup Mountain in 1940, on the ridgetop about a mile and a half south of the summit, in Clatsop County, roughly 13 miles southeast of Astoria.1,2 A cab of the L-4 type was added in 1951.1 In 1955 a pole tower replaced the tower and cab on the same ridge.1

The two sources disagree on how tall that 1955 tower was. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes a 40-foot pole tower, while firelookout.com lists a 50-foot wooden tower of the state forestry agency.1,2 The Oregon Department of Forestry administered the site.1

A 1952 photo caption says Fire Warden Richard Spray and his crew gave the lookout a fresh coat of paint that year, and that the woman on the right of the photo was the lookout.1 From the 1960s on, the tower was used only in emergencies.1

The tower is now gone.1,2 Keith Argow, Ph.D., CF, writes that the logger who owned Camp 18 wanted the tower for a museum, and that a helicopter company had agreed to airlift it.1 Around that time, Argow adds, the tower was taken apart and burned.1

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the ridge today.

  1. Wickiup Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wickiup-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wickiup Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wickiupmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Wickiup Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
In 1952, the lookout was freshly painted by Fire Warden Richard Spray and his crew. The lady on the right was the lookout.
In 1952, the lookout was freshly painted by Fire Warden Richard Spray and his crew. The lady on the right was the lookout (1952)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.

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 location by 2.9 km (1.8 mi).

    • FFLOS: 46.07946, −123.58682
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 46.10560, −123.58624

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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, height, 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.