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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Windy Camp Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR lookout site: a 30-ft pole L-4 tower built 1933 replaced an early camp; gone by 1959; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1959 per the register and firelookout.com; no source read 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
Cab on a tower30-foot round fir pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1922
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
3,977 ft (1,212 m)
Agency
Douglas FPA (per the register and firelookout.com)
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.06076, −122.96898
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-windy-camp-2

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 3.6 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. 1922 BuiltFirst setup: crow's nest and tent cabin (register, firelookout.com). The Oregon lookouts site instead describes a 10x12 log dwelling with a shake roof, 50 feet up in a treeSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 Built30-foot round fir pole tower with an L-4 cab constructed (Oregon lookouts site); firelookout.com also gives 1933Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 Replaced by a new structure30' pole L-4 tower replaced the crow's nest and tent cabin (register)Source: firetower.org
  4. 1937 Altered12x24 pole barn with two stalls constructed (Oregon lookouts site)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1937 and 1959
  6. 1959 RemovedTower gone by 1959 (register and firelookout.com). Exact removal date not given in the sources readSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1959 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: April 22, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

The Windy Camp site is in Douglas County, about 18 miles east of Myrtle Creek.1 The register lists the Douglas FPA as the administrator.2

The first setup dates to 1922. The register and firelookout.com describe a crow's nest and a tent cabin.2,1 The Oregon lookouts site describes a different first structure, a 10-by-12 log dwelling with a shake roof, set 50 feet up in a tree.3

In 1933 a 30-foot round fir pole tower with an L-4 cab went up.1,3 The register says it replaced the crow's nest and tent cabin.2 A 12-by-24 pole barn with two stalls followed in 1937.3

Both the register and firelookout.com say the tower was gone by 1959. Neither gives a more exact date.2,1

A separate Windy Camp, eight miles southeast of Mount Hood in Hood River County, has its own record and is a different place.4

No source I read describes what remains at this site today, or whether the public can reach it.2,1,3

  1. Windy Camp Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/windycamp65.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Windy Camp Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/windy-camp-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Windy Camp - FOREST LOOKOUTS, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/windy-camp1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Windy Camp Fire Lookout, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/or/windycamp.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Windy Camp Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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: design, height, ownership, 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, 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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