Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum
Open March 15 to November 15, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; grounds open year-round for self-guided visits (The Oregonian, 2025, and National Park Service, checked November 2026).
One of the Forest Service's first smokejumper bases, open from 1943 to 1981 and now a free museum at the Illinois Valley Airport. Volunteers, some of them retired jumpers, show the 1940s planes, the parachute loft, and the old office.
- Address: 30902 Redwood Hwy, Cave Junction, OR 97523
- Phone: (541) 441-4804
- Website: siskiyousmokejumpermuseum.org
- Area: Cave Junction
From our Illinois Valley history page
In 1943, the Forest Service expanded its new smokejumper program, firefighters who parachute in to fires that crews on foot can't reach quickly. One of the new bases started at the Redwood Ranger Station in Cave Junction and moved out to the Illinois Valley Airport after 1945. Siskiyou crews made 5,390 fire jumps over 39 fire seasons. The base closed in 1981, when the Forest Service centralized Oregon's smokejumping in Redmond.
Stuart Roosa started work at the base in 1953, as a college student. Years later he flew to the Moon on Apollo 14, carrying the tree seeds that grew into the "Moon Trees."
The base is now the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum, a nonprofit run by volunteers, including retired smokejumpers who lead tours. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. You can see the redwood office with its old dispatch radio, 2 jump planes from the 1940s, the parachute loft (which The Oregonian called the oldest in the country in 2025), and a former mess hall full of photos.
- Season and hours: March 15 to November 15, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The grounds are open for self-guided visits all year.
- Cost: free. Donations help keep the buildings up.
- Where: 30902 Redwood Highway, at the Illinois Valley Airport southwest of Cave Junction. Phone (541) 441-4804.
Read the whole Illinois Valley history page.
Nearby
- Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside, 0.6 miles away in a straight line
- O'Brien Country Store, 2.8 miles away in a straight line
- Great Cats World Park, 2.8 miles away in a straight line
- Waldo Cemetery (old Waldo townsite), 3.6 miles away in a straight line
- Illinois River Forks State Park, 4.0 miles away in a straight line
Every place in the valley is on the places page.