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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Bally Mountain Lookout Site

Union County, OR tower on Wallowa-Whitman NF: 61' wooden tower (1933), 82' R-6 tower (1960), gone by 1981; no current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone in 1981 per Register and firelookout.com; Forest Lookouts marks it Removed with no date; method of removal not stated; 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
Cab on a tower61' wooden tower with 7'x7' cab (1933), replaced in 1960 by an 82' treated timber R-6 towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,716 ft (1,437 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.28957, −118.57407
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bally-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 4.1 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. 1933 Built61' wooden tower with 7'x7' cab built in 1933 (Register); firelookout.com: established 1933Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1935 EventPanorama photos dated July 26, 1935 (Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1954
  4. 1954 StaffedDean Masterson listed as known lookout personnel (firelookout.com)Source: firelookout.com
  5. 1958 StaffedDon Miller listed as known lookout personnel (firelookout.com); July 4, 1958 item quoted by Forest Lookouts says his family was heading to Bally MountainSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1960 Replaced by a new structure82' treated timber R-6 tower replaced the 1933 towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1962 StaffedKeith Masterson, Bally Mountain lookout; 43 members of 4-H Camp Elkanah visited his post (La Grande Observer, as quoted by Forest Lookouts, July 20, 1962)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1962 and 1981
  9. 1981 RemovedRegister and firelookout.com: gone in 1981. Forest Lookouts marks it Removed with no date. Method and exact date not stated.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1981 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 26, 2011 as US 1106, OR 462; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  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.

Bally Mountain stands in Union County, Oregon, on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, about 24 miles west of La Grande, at 4,716 feet.1,2

The first lookout went up in 1933. It was a 61-foot wooden tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab.1,2 Forest Lookouts lists a set of panorama photos dated July 26, 1935.3 In 1960 an 82-foot treated-timber tower, called an R-6 tower in the records, replaced the first one.1,2

Forest Lookouts names few people who worked the site. Firelookout.com lists Dean Masterson as known personnel in 1954 and Don Miller in 1958.2 A July 1958 item quoted by Forest Lookouts says Don Miller, his wife Kay and their son were heading to Bally Mountain.3 In July 1962 Keith Masterson, who usually spent summers largely out of touch, had 43 members of 4-H Camp Elkanah come by his post.3 We found no fire tied to the lookout.

The Register and firelookout.com both say the lookout was gone by 1981.1,2 Firelookout.com lists the two towers as running from 1933 to 1960 and from 1960 to 1981.2 Forest Lookouts marks the site "Removed" but gives no date.3 No source we read says how the tower came down.

The Register added the site on July 26, 2011, as US 1106 and OR 462, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, or whether the public can reach it. The Register names the U.S. Forest Service as administrator, so that is the agency to ask before you go.1

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

Photos

Photo of Bally Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: 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, staffing, 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

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