FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Baker County, Oregon

Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as Bald Mtn.

Former lookout cab on Bald (Dooley) Mountain, Baker County: built 1934 or 1936 per two register entries, abandoned by 1947 on one of them; gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Both register entries and firelookout.com list the cab as gone; the Dooley Mountain entry gives abandonment in 1947, and no source describes what remains

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 cabL-4 cab per the register; Rex's page gives a 14 x 14 lookout cabin built in 1934The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,683 ft (2,037 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Baker County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.57412, −117.89368
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bald-dooley-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1921 First staffedfirelookout.com lists W.J. Sargent as lookout personnel in 1921Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1932 Staffedfirelookout.com lists John Bacon as lookout personnel in 1932Source: firelookout.com
  3. 1933 StaffedRex's page quotes a July 1933 item saying a couple had moved out to the Bald Mountain lookout stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 BuiltBald (Dooley) register entry and firelookout.com give 1934 for an L-4 cab; Rex's page describes a 14 x 14 lookout cabin constructed in 1934Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1936 BuiltDooley Mountain register entry and firelookout.com's Dooley page give 1936 for an L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1947 AbandonedDooley Mountain register entry and firelookout.com's Dooley page give 1947; newspaper items from 1959 to 1975 describe Bald Mountain as mannedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1959 StaffedRecord-Courier names Jim Brooks as first season lookout on the Baker district, manning Bald MountainSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1970 StaffedBaker Democrat-Herald says the Bald Mt. and Mt. Ireland lookouts were manned 24 hours a day until fire danger decreasedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1975 StaffedRecord-Courier names Patty Piper in charge of the Bald Mt. state forestry lookout postSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1975 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: July 26, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

Sources give two different build dates for the lookout cab on Bald (Dooley) Mountain, and they do not agree on how long it stood. A July 1933 item reported that a couple had moved out to the Bald Mountain lookout station, and Rex's page says a 14 x 14 lookout cabin was constructed in 1934.1 The register's Bald (Dooley) entry gives 1934 for an L-4 cab, and firelookout.com's Bald Mountain page agrees on 1934 and also lists a camp in the 1920s.2,3 A second register entry, for Dooley Mountain in the same forest and county, dates its L-4 cab to 1936, and firelookout.com's separate Dooley page gives the same year.4,5

firelookout.com names lookouts across several decades, including W.J. Sargent in 1921, John Bacon in 1932 and Jack Poe in 1965.3 Rex's page gives the 1933 lookout as John Badon, which may be a spelling variant of the 1932 name.3,1 In July 1959 the Record-Courier reported that Jim Brooks was manning Bald Mountain, the first season lookout on the Baker district.1 In 1970 the Baker Democrat-Herald reported that the Bald Mt. and Mt. Ireland lookouts were staffed around the clock until fire danger eased, and in 1975 the Record-Courier said Patty Piper was in charge of the Bald Mt. state forestry lookout post that summer.1

The Dooley Mountain entry says its cab was abandoned in 1947 and is now gone, and firelookout.com's Dooley page gives the same 1947 date.4,5 The Bald (Dooley) entry says only that its cab is now gone, with no date.2 The 1947 date does not sit easily with the 1959, 1970 and 1975 newspaper items about Bald Mountain, and no source we read explains the gap.4,1 firelookout.com's Dooley page also says the site may not have actually been used.5

A 1946 Coast and Geodetic Survey description says the survey station sits in the middle of a Forest Service lookout house, so a house stood on the summit by then.1

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the summit now. The register has a 2017 photo of the site, but its caption does not say what the photo shows.2 The site is about 14 miles south of Baker City in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.5,4 We found no source that says whether it is open to visitors, so check with the forest before you go.

  1. Bald Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bald-mountain3.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/bald-dooley-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bald Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/baldmtn104.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Dooley Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/dooley-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Dooley Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/or/dooleymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout 1942
Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout site 2017
Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout site 2017 (2017)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout panoramic 10-7-1935
Bald (Dooley) Mountain Lookout panoramic 10-7-1935 (1935)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via 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, 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: 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.