FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Yellow Stone Lookout Site

Also known as Yellowstone Mountain

Linn County, OR cupola cabin on Yellowstone Mountain, dated 1921 by the register; sources disagree on its removal (1970) and ruin (by 1993). Gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The register and firelookout.com say it was in ruins by 1993; Forest Lookouts gives 1970 as the removal year

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
Ground-level cabUnique cupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,319 ft (1,316 m)
Agency
Linn FPA
Land
Unknown
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.56819, −122.48288
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-yellow-stone

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 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. 1913 StaffedJohn Roberts in charge of the lookout station (Albany Democrat item, April 1913)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 BuiltCupola cabin dated 1921 by the register and firelookout.com; newspaper items on the Forest Lookouts page point to a station in 1913 and a new lookout in 1926Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1925 EventNewspaper item calls it a newly established lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1926 EventTwo men began work at the site while a new lookout was being erectedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1931 FireFire within two miles of the station; the lookout and his wife moved about three miles down the mountain and returned the next daySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1940 StaffedRay Cather to become lookout (Lebanon Express item, August 1940)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1943 StaffedByron Gift, Sr. is the lookout (The New Era item, July 1943)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1950 EventStill listed among the Linn County Fire Patrol's lookouts (August 1950 item quoted on the Big Rock page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1950 and 1970
  10. 1970 RemovedRemoval year given on the Forest Lookouts page; conflicts with the register's ruins by 1993Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1970 and 1993
  12. 1993 EventRegister and firelookout.com say the cabin was in ruins by 1993Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  13. No record between 1993 and 2011
  14. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 16, 2011Source: firetower.org
  15. 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 Yellowstone lookout stood on Yellowstone Mountain, 21 miles east of Lebanon in Linn County, Oregon.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register describes a unique cupola cabin built in 1921, about half a mile south of the summit.3 Firelookout.com gives the same year.1 The newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts site do not agree. One from April 1913 names a lookout station on the mountain, a May 1925 item calls it a newly established lookout, and an August 1926 item says a new lookout was being erected there.2 The sources do not agree on when the cabin went up.

Newspapers also name some of the people who worked there. In 1913 John Roberts was in charge of the station.2 In 1926 Lester Morehead and Earnest Rolcoln began work at the site, where they were putting up a new lookout.2 An August 1931 item reports a fire within two miles of the station. The lookout and his wife moved about three miles down the mountain, and they were able to move back the next day.2 A 1940 item says Ray Cather was to become the lookout, and a 1941 item calls him Roy Cather.2 Byron Gift, Sr. was the lookout in 1943.2

The Linn County Fire Patrol still listed Yellowstone among its lookouts in 1950.4

The Forest Lookouts site gives 1970 as the year the lookout was removed.2 The register and firelookout.com instead say the cabin was in ruins by 1993, and firelookout.com titles its page "R.I.P. 1921-1993."3,1 We could not reconcile those dates.

The register names Linn FPA as the administrator.3 No source we read describes what, if anything, is left at the site today, or whether visitors are welcome.3

  1. Yellowstone Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/yellowstone.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Yellowstone Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/yellowstone-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Yellow Stone Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/yellow-stone-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Big Rock, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/big-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Yellow Stone Lookout Site
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.

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: 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, 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.