Type: D-6 cupola cabin
Status: Not staffed
Elevation: 6,200′
Visited: July 13, 2023
The Hershberger Mountain lookout is one of the few remaining cupola-style lookouts in Oregon. After a harrowing drive up the awful road, I parked at the turnaround spot next to an old shed:
View of the lookout from the parking area:
It’s a short walk up the hill to the lookout:
The place was all buttoned up:
But amazingly the door was only closed with a latch, not a lock:
It was somewhat clean inside, but totally devoid of furniture or amenities:
Definitely some rodent droppings in here:
The view to the north:
Looking east:
To the northeast is Fish Mountain:
And Mt. Bailey and Mt. Thielsen:
Looking southeast to the Crater Lake area:
Looking south to Union Peak and Mt. McLoughlin, with the distinctive Rabbit Ears in the foreground:
Looking southwest:
Looking west:
More information
Forest Lookouts
Rex’s Forest Fire Lookout Page
National Historic Lookout Register
Peakbagger
Panorama Photos
Geocache
Directions
From Highway 230, just 0.8 miles north of the junction with Crater Lake Highway, turn west onto Road 6510. After 1.6 miles go right at a fork onto Road 6520. After 0.5 miles turn left onto Road 6515. Drive 6.7 miles then turn right onto Road 530. Drive 1.7 miles to the sharp switch back and trailhead on the left, then another 0.6 steep rough miles to the parking area at road’s end. (This last section of road is rough and not suitable for low clearance cars.)
History
A lookout camp was established on Hershberger Mountain 1917. A D-6 cupola cabin was built in 1925.
1925
1950
The lookout has not been regularly staffed in quite awhile, but it has undergone restoration. In October 1991 the lookout was dedicated after a summer of restoration work by a group called “Friends of Hershberger Lookout” who worked with the Forest Service and donated 1,300 labor hours. Work included removal of the deteriorating floor, ceiling, siding, windows, shutters, and shingles. Doug Newman’s 10/22/91 article in the Register Guard said “Workers essentially rebuilt the mountaintop dwelling from the ground up, faithfully restoring the structure according to original architecture specifications.” The article also noted that the Forest Service hoped to convert the lookout into a rental, and planned to do an environmental analysis and other assessments over the winter.
The Forest Service was still talking about making it a rental 16 years later, according to this July 12, 2007 article in the Lewiston Tribune. “The U.S. Forest Service plans to add the lookout to its forest rentals offered each summer.” Jeff LaLande said “We need to do some signing and putting together a renter’s information packet. And it has to go through a review process in the regional office over what fees we will charge.”
Also from the article:
“The Forest Service had a volunteer project that involved a lot of district employees who worked on their weekends and some generous private citizens,” LaLande recalls. “They stripped the whole thing, took the flooring up and refinished it, removed the late edition of a catwalk that had been built around the historic lookout.” Inside the lookout, the fir floor has been restored, as has the original wainscoting. “We took out the windows and reglazed them,” he says. “But some fool during hunting season down in the meadow did target practice on the lookout. We had a bullet hole through the shutters, broke the glass and who knows what would have happened if someone would have been standing here.” Last year, the Forest Service expanded a concrete platform outside the door and installed a new safety railing.
For whatever reason, the lookout never was converted into a rental.