FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Wildcat Mountain Lookout Site-MHNF

Also known as Wildcat Mountain

Gone Mount Hood NF lookout: 1928 rag camp, 1931 L-4 cab, end dated 1952 or 1953; summit now a clearing reached on foot by the Douglas Trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1952 per the FFLOS register; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1953

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. Reached on foot by a hike from the Douglas Trailhead, per Oregon Hikers; no closure or restriction is described in the sources read

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Out-and-back hike; the spur to the summit is unmarked, so watch for it at the crest of the Douglas Trail

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabRag camp with fire finder and phone (1928), replaced by an L-4 cab (1931)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1928
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,492 ft (1,369 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.29363, −122.04156
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wildcat-mountain-lookout-site-mhnf

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 4.2 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. 1928 BuiltRag camp with fire finder and phone set upSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1931 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab replaced the rag campSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1931 StaffedNewspaper item dated August 31, 1931 names Milton Beal as the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1931 and 1952
  5. 1952 RemovedFFLOS register says the lookout was removed; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1953Source: firetower.org
  6. 1953 Destroyedfirelookout.com says destroyed in 1953; the register says removed in 1952Source: firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1953 and 2010
  8. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 21, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  9. 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.

A rag camp with a fire finder and a telephone was set up on Wildcat Mountain in 1928, in Clackamas County within the Mount Hood National Forest.1,2 In 1931 an L-4 cab replaced it.1,2

A newspaper item from August 1931, copied onto an Oregon lookouts index, said the new station was well underway and that a string of pack horses was hauling building material up the mountain. It named Milton Beal as the lookout.3

The sources disagree on when the lookout ended. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says it was removed in 1952.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed in 1953.2

The Oregon Hikers field guide describes an out-and-back walk up the Douglas Trail from the Douglas Trailhead. The hike begins on a logging spur that can be tricky to find for first-timers, and it ends at an unmarked spur to the summit.4 The guide also says a 1930s Forest Service lookout once stood there, and that the view once extended in every direction. Trees are now obscuring the northern views, including the view of Mount Hood.4

A 2013 blog post describes the top as a small rocky clearing surrounded by trees. The post does not mention any remains of the lookout.5

  1. Wildcat Mountain Lookout Site-MHNF, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wildcat-mountain-lookout-site-mhnf/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wildcat Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wildcatmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wildcat Mountain - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wildcat-mountain2.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Douglas Trail to Wildcat Mountain Hike, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Douglas_Trail_to_Wildcat_Mountain_Hike (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Wildcat Mountain, Beyond (blog), thirddoor.com, https://beyond.thirddoor.com/09/2013/wildcat-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Wildcat Mountain Lookout panoramic 11-8-33
Wildcat Mountain Lookout panoramic 11-8-33Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via 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.

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, staffing, 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.