FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Yellowjacket

Also known as Yellowjacket Mountain

Rogue River NF crow's nest in a 30-foot tree, built 1917; staffed into the 1920s; abandoned 1928 after a cupola went up on Dutchman's Peak. Present state unknown.

Status unknown: We do not know yet whether it still stands. Fire Lookout Association list says Abandoned; firelookout.com, undated, says the crow's nest was still there when written; no later source found

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Status unknown sources disagree
Type
Open platform towercrow's nest in the top of a 30-foot tree, with a cabin nearbyThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1917
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
6,284 ft (1,915 m)
Agency
Rogue River National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.02714, −122.94966
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-yellowjacket

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1916 Event1916 report recommended a 100-foot steel tower that would need 125 trees felled; the crow's nest was built instead in 1917Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1917 BuiltCrow's nest in the top of a 30-foot tree with a cabin nearby; firelookout.com also gives 1917Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1919 StaffedJ. J. Deadmond listed against Yellowjacket Lookout in the 1919 personnel table (also 1920)Source: foresthistory.org
  4. 1921 StaffedA. Schichtl listed against Yellowjacket Lookout (also 1923)Source: foresthistory.org
  5. 1922 StaffedAlex Schichtl listed as an Applegate guard against Yellowjacket Lookout in the 1922 tableSource: foresthistory.org
  6. 1924 FireGuard burned on a Red Mountain fire crawled to the station; A. H. Peachey gave first aid (Morning Oregonian item, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1925 StaffedAlex Schichtl listed against Yellowjacket Lookout (also 1926)Source: foresthistory.org
  8. 1927 EventCupola lookout house built on Dutchman's Peak, a separate structureSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1928 AbandonedAbandoned after the cupola cabin was constructed atop nearby Dutchman's PeakSource: firelookout.com
  10. 1932 EventCrater National Forest officially proclaimed the Rogue River National Forest (July 9; the volume covers up to July 1, 1932)Source: foresthistory.org
  11. TodayStatus unknownWe do not know whether it still stands.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Yellowjacket lookout was built in 1917 as a crow's nest atop a 30-foot tree on Yellowjacket Mountain, about 20 miles south-southwest of Medford.1,2 The mountain now lies in the Rogue River National Forest.1,2 Sources from 1916 and 1924 call that forest the Crater National Forest, which was renamed in July 1932.2,3 A cabin stood nearby. One source calls it a log cabin and the other a shake-sided one.1,2 A 1916 report had proposed a 100-foot steel tower, which it said would mean felling 125 trees, but the structure built in 1917 was the crow's nest.2

Personnel tables in the history of the Rogue River National Forest list J. J. Deadmond at the lookout in 1919 and 1920, A. Schichtl in 1921 and 1923, and Alex Schichtl in 1922, 1925 and 1926.3 In September 1924 a guard who had been burned on a fire on Red Mountain crawled three or four miles to the station, where A. H. Peachey gave him first aid, according to a Morning Oregonian item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.2

The lookout was abandoned in 1928, after a cupola cabin was built atop nearby Dutchman's Peak.1 That cupola house went up in 1927.4 A 1922 report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page for Dutchman's Peak, says Dutchman Peak sees everything Yellowjacket sees, plus places the report lists as hidden from it.4

Today the picture is unclear. An undated page on firelookout.com says the crow's nest was still there when it was written, but the Fire Lookout Association list marks the site as abandoned.1,5 We found no newer source describing what stands on Yellowjacket Mountain or whether visitors can reach it, so check with the Rogue River National Forest before going. The Dutchman's Peak cabin is a separate structure, which the same association list marks as standing.5

  1. Yellowjacket Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/yellowjacket.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Yellowjacket Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/yellowjacket-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. History of the Rogue River National Forest, volume 1, foresthistory.org, https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/HISTORY-OF-THE-ROGUE-RIVER-NATIONAL-FORESTvol1.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Dutchman's Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/dutchmans-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Oregon lookout list, Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Yellowjacket in 1986
Yellowjacket in 1986 (1986)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

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  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • Firefinder research: Status unknown
    • FFLA: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing

    Research (2026-10-10) gives unknown where the source records give gone. The page shows the researched status; please tell us if it is wrong.

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: elevation, agency, ownership, dates, photos, 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  4. 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.