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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Black Crater Lookout Site

Deschutes NF summit lookout: frame cabin built 1925, L-4 cab in the 1930s, closed and dismantled by 1953; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Closed and dismantled by 1953; the register says the L-4 cab is now gone; no source describes what remains on the summit

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. The Black Crater Trailhead is day use only. The trail enters the Three Sisters Wilderness shortly after the trailhead, and wilderness permits are required. No source says whether the old lookout site itself is open.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Black Crater Trail #4058 starts at a Forest Service trailhead that is day use only, with a wilderness permit required

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabFrame cabin built 1925; replaced in the 1930s by an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1925
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,251 ft (2,210 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.26600, −121.74856
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-black-crater

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 3.6 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 EventA new lookout station was planned for Black Crater for the 1922 season (Bend Bulletin, quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1923 StaffedLee Armstrong stationed on Black Crater for the summer; relieved from duty in September 1923Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1925 BuiltFrame cabin built in 1925 (register); in September 1925 a standard lookout house was under construction by lookout J. F. BlanchardSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1926 FireOnly report of the season was one false alarmSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1928 StaffedEdward Zane named lookout for 1928Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1930 Replaced by a new structureFrame cabin replaced by an L-4 cab in the 1930s; the sources give only the decade, so 1930 is a placeholder for the 1930sSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1930 StaffedDick Ayres, a University of Idaho School of Forestry student, staffed the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1932 EventDesignated a precipitation recording point, to be supplied with a rain gaugeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1932 and 1953
  10. 1953 RemovedStation closed after lookouts were built on more accessible buttes; by 1953 described as dismantled. The exact removal date is not givenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1953 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 24, 2011 as US 941, OR 299Source: firetower.org
  13. 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.

Black Crater sits in the Deschutes National Forest, about ten miles west of Sisters, Oregon.1 The Bend Bulletin reported in March 1922 that a new lookout station was planned there for that season.2

A standard lookout house was going up on Black Crater in September 1925, with J. F. Blanchard, the lookout, building it.2 Pack horses hauled the lumber about two and a half miles.2 The Register describes a frame cabin built that year.3 In the 1930s the frame cabin gave way to an L-4 cab, and the Register says that cab is now gone.3,1

Lookouts named in the newspapers include Lee Armstrong, who was relieved from the peak in September 1923; J. F. Blanchard; Edward Zane, named for 1928; and Dick Ayres, a University of Idaho forestry student, who staffed the lookout in 1930.2 The only report from the 1926 season that the Forest Lookouts page quotes was a false alarm.2 In 1932 the station was designated for precipitation recording and was to get a rain gauge.2

The sources disagree slightly on the summit height. The Register gives 7,251 feet, while a 1936 Forest Service station description puts the lookout house at 7,260 feet on the summit.3,2

The Forest Service closed the station once lookouts had been set up on easier-to-reach buttes nearby. A 1953 Bend Bulletin item describes the old building as dismantled by then.2

None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, is left on the summit today. The Forest Service lists a day-use trailhead for Black Crater Trail #4058. The trail enters the Three Sisters Wilderness a short distance past the trailhead, and day visitors need a wilderness permit.4 We found no agency statement on whether the old lookout site itself is open to visitors.

  1. Black Crater Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/blackcrater.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Black Crater, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/black-crater.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Black Crater Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/black-crater-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Black Crater Trailhead, Deschutes National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/deschutes/recreation/black-crater-trailhead (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Black Crater Lookout 1949
Black Crater Lookout 1949 (1949)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via 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, 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, access, visiting details, 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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