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Fire lookout · Morrow County, Oregon

Arbuckle Mountain Lookout Site

Umatilla NF lookout SE of Heppner: a 1922 crow's nest in a fir, a 24-foot pole platform, a 67-foot L-4 tower built 1946; removed 1976.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1976 after its last staffing in 1974

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
Cab on a tower67-foot wooden L-4 tower (1946), after a 24-foot pole platformThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1922
Height
67 ft (20.4 m)
Elevation
5,827 ft (1,776 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umatilla National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Morrow County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.18959, −119.25503
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-arbuckle-mountain

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 3.9 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. 1922 BuiltPlatform in a large fir tree, 90 feet up, per a Heppner paper (August 1922)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1927 Replaced by a new structureNew lookout tower completed October 1927, per a Heppner paper; not as high as the earlier oneSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 Built24-foot pole platformSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1931 AlteredTower remodeled and a cabin built for the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1931 and 1946
  6. 1946 Built67-foot wooden L-4 tower; Rex's page shows construction under way in September 1946Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  7. 1948 EventUkiah district report: a 14x14 lookout station on an 83-foot tower, house completion due spring 1948Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1956 AlteredTower repaired, per Ukiah Ranger District annual report quoted on Rex's pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1956 and 1974
  10. 1974 Last staffedLast staffed in 1974Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. 1976 RemovedLookout removedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  12. No record between 1976 and 2011
  13. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 12, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  14. 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 Former Fire Lookout Sites Register places Arbuckle Mountain in Morrow County, within the Umatilla National Forest.1 Firelookout.com places it roughly 20 miles southeast of Heppner.2 In August 1922 a Heppner paper described a new lookout station: a platform in a large fir tree, ninety feet up and held by a steel crow's nest frame.3 In October 1927 a Heppner paper reported that work on a new lookout tower was finished.3

The register says a 24-foot pole platform followed in 1930.1 Rex's page says a 24-foot pole platform was in use in the 1930s, and a January 1931 item said the tower had been upgraded and a cabin put up for the lookout.3

The later wooden tower took shape between 1946 and 1948.1,3 The register and firelookout.com give a 67-foot wooden L-4 tower built in 1946.1,2 A Heppner paper said in September 1946 that the foundation was nearly complete.3 A January 1948 Ukiah district report, however, describes a new 14-by-14-foot lookout station on an 83-foot tower, with the house to be finished that spring.3 The sources disagree on the height and on when the tower was finished.1,3,2

Firelookout.com lists Homer Landers in 1922, Frank Farnsworth in 1927, Kate Smith in 1945 and Calvin Webb in 1949, among others.2

The register and firelookout.com say the lookout was last manned in 1974 and taken down in 1976.1,2 Rex's page also gives 1976 for the removal, and records a repair in January 1956.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the mountain today, or whether the road up it is open to visitors.1,3,2

  1. Arbuckle Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/arbuckle-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Arbuckle Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/arbuckle.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Arbuckle Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/arbuckle-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Arbuckle Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Crow's Nest
Crow's NestPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Garage
GaragePhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1962
1962 (1962)Photo: 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, 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: 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, 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.