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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Chicken Hill Lookout Site

Wallowa-Whitman NF lookout near Anthony Lakes, Oregon: a 20-foot pole L-4 tower built 1935, replaced 1942, removed or destroyed in 1968.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and Rex's page say the tower was removed in 1968; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1968

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 tower20-foot pole L-4 tower (1935), replaced in 1942 by what the register calls a 10-foot Supervisor Hall live-in towerThe designs: L-4, D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,989 ft (2,130 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.98817, −118.35628
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-chicken-hill

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 3.8 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. 1934 StaffedJuly 1934 Record-Courier item says Harry Craig would be stationed there that summer (planned posting)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date the 20-foot pole L-4 tower to 1935; a 1933 item had announced a house on a 20-foot tower and a 1934 item called the station newSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1938 StaffedRaymond Pederson in charge of the station, per a 1938 La Grande Observer itemSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 StaffedBernal Coles of Haines at Chicken Hill in August 1939, when fire hazard led to a doubling of station forces at various lookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1940 StaffedA Wolf Creek schoolteacher and her husband went to the station for the 1940 summer monthsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1942 Replaced by a new structureRegister says the 20-foot pole tower was replaced with a 10-foot Supervisor Hall live-in towerSource: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1942 and 1968
  8. 1968 RemovedRegister and Rex's page say removed in 1968; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1968Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1968 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register June 13, 2011Source: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Chicken Hill stands in Union County, Oregon, in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest near Anthony Lakes, at about 2,130 meters.1,2 The register lists the U.S. Forest Service as the administrator.1 A September 1933 item from The Record-Courier said the lookout's house was coming soon and would sit atop a 20-foot tower. The same item noted that the point was high and offered a good view across a wide area of forest.2 A July 1934 item called the station new and said Harry Craig would be posted there that summer.2 The register and firelookout.com both date the 20-foot pole L-4 tower to 1935.1,3

Sources name a planned summer occupant in 1934, then summer staff at the station from 1938 through 1940.2 A 1938 La Grande Observer item, as reproduced on a lookout history page, named Raymond Pederson as the person in charge.2 In 1939, when fire hazard led to a doubling of station forces at various lookouts, Bernal Coles of Haines was posted at Chicken Hill.2 The last staffing item we found is from 1940, when a Wolf Creek schoolteacher and her husband went up to the station for the summer.2

In 1942 the register says the original tower was replaced with what it calls a 10-foot Supervisor Hall live-in tower.1 The register and Rex's page both give 1968 as the year that tower was removed.1,2 firelookout.com says the lookout was destroyed that year, so the sources agree on the date but not on how it ended.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the site today, and none says whether the ground is open to visitors. Check with the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest before planning a trip.

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

Photos

Chicken Hill Lookout 1942
Chicken Hill Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Chicken Hill Lookout
Chicken Hill LookoutPhoto: 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, 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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