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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Wolf Mountain Lookout Site

Wolf Mountain lookout near Oakridge, Lane County, Oregon: 65-foot L-4 tower built 1940 after a 1939 collapse; sources disagree on 1966 burning versus 1967 removal.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned or destroyed in 1966 per the register and firelookout.com; the Oregon Lookouts page says removed in 1967

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. Willamette National Forest land; a trail listing shows the service road gated in winter and does not mention the lookout. Public status is inferred, not stated by a source

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower65-foot treated timber L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1931
Height
65 ft (19.8 m)
Elevation
6,461 ft (1,969 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.61667, −122.22994
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wolf-mountain-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. 1920 EventSite began as a campSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1931 BuiltFirst permanent structure, a cab and ground cabin, built 1931 per the registerSource: firetower.org
  3. 1931 StaffedRoy Beemer named as fire lookout at Wolf Mountain point; assaulted on the trail that OctoberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 DestroyedA 65-foot tower crashed in the winter before June 1939; a guy-wire turnbuckle had come unscrewedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1939 EventCCC crew worked on the replacement 65-foot tower during 1939Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1940 Built65-foot treated timber L-4 tower erected; the register says it replaced the 1931 cab and ground cabinSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1940 and 1966
  8. 1966 BurnedRegister says burned down in 1966; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1966Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. 1967 RemovedOregon Lookouts page lists the tower as removed in 1967Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1967 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered May 16, 2011Source: firetower.org
  12. 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 Wolf Mountain lookout stood on a peak in the Willamette National Forest, in Lane County, Oregon.1 The peak is recorded at 6,461 feet, and firelookout.com places it about 12 miles southeast of Oakridge.1,2

The register says the site began as a camp in 1920, and that a cab and ground cabin went up in 1931.1 A newspaper that April had described a planned 70-foot wooden tower on Wolf Mountain.3 In 1940 a 65-foot treated timber L-4 tower replaced the early buildings.1,3

Roy Beemer was the fire lookout at Wolf Mountain point in 1931.3 That October a newspaper reported that two unidentified men had attacked him on a trail not far from his lookout.3

A 65-foot tower on Wolf Mountain came down during the winter before June 1939.3 A June report said a turnbuckle on one guy wire had come unscrewed, which let the tower fall once the wind picked up.3 The Civilian Conservation Corps worked on a replacement that year, and the new 65-foot tower went up in 1940.3

The register says the tower burned down in 1966, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 The Oregon Lookouts page says it was removed in 1967.3 The sources do not agree on how the tower ended.

No source we read describes what, if anything, is left at the summit now. A trail listing for a Wolf Mountain at 6,480 feet in the Willamette National Forest says the peak can be reached by service road 2316526, and that roads close by gate in winter.4 The listing does not mention the lookout, so it is unclear whether it describes this site.

  1. Wolf Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wolf-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wolf Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wolfmtn79.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wolf Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wolf-mountain2.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Wolf Mountain 2316, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/oregon/wolf-mountain-2316 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Wolf Mountain Lookout 1964
Wolf Mountain Lookout 1964 (1964)Photo: Mark Swift collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wolf Mountain Lookout 1945
Wolf Mountain Lookout 1945 (1945)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wolf Mountain Lookout 1931 - 1940
Wolf Mountain Lookout 1931 - 1940 (1931)Photo: Bill Williams, Howard Verschoor 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, 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: design, 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, 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.