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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Wildcat Mountain Lookout Site-WNF

Also known as Wildcat Mountain

Linn County, OR lookout on the Willamette NF: 14x14 L-4 house built 1934, cab removed 1965; no source describes what remains today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed in 1965 per the register and Oregon lookouts site (firelookout.com says destroyed); no source describes what remains at the site

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. No source read says whether the site is open to the public

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cab14 x 14 L-4 lookout houseThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,353 ft (1,632 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.33658, −122.10723
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wildcat-mountain-lookout-site-wnf

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. 1934 Built14 x 14 L-4 lookout house constructed by three CCC men (Oregon lookouts site); register says the L-4 cab was built in 1934Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 StaffedEugene P. Smith named lookout fireman (Albany Democrat-Herald, July 14, 1939, as quoted by the Oregon lookouts site)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 1956
  4. 1956 StaffedLeland named lookout attendant for 1956; Richard Weber up at the lookout with him (The Lebanon Express, July 19, 1956, as quoted by the Oregon lookouts site)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1965 RemovedRegister and Oregon lookouts site say removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1965 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 16, 2011 as FFLOS US 1002; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Wildcat Mountain sits in the Willamette National Forest in Linn County, about 12 miles north-northeast of McKenzie Bridge.1,2 In 1934 a 14-by-14 L-4 lookout house went up there, and the Oregon lookouts site credits three men from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with building it and staffing it.3

In 1939 Eugene P. Smith was the lookout fireman on the mountain.3 In July 1956 Richard Weber was up at the lookout with his brother Leland, who was the lookout attendant that year.3

The cab came down in 1965. The register and the Oregon lookouts site say it was removed, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,2,3 The site went onto the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 16, 2011, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.1

The register tells the history of the cab and says nothing about the site as it stands now.1 None of the sources I read says whether anything remains on the mountain, or whether the public can reach it.1,2,3

  1. Wildcat Mountain Lookout Site-WNF, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wildcat-mountain-lookout-site-wnf/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wildcat Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wildcatmtn79.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wildcat Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wildcat-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Wildcat Mountain Lookout 1949
Wildcat Mountain Lookout 1949 (1949)Photo: Mark Swift collection, 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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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