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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Cultus Mountain Lookout Site

Cultus Mountain lookout, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon: a 1935 tower replaced in 1958, removed by 1968 per two sources; now gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Two pages say the lookout is gone; none we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit.

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 round tower with a 10x10 foot L-5 cabin (1935), replaced in 1958 by a 20-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 cabThe designs: L-5, R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1925
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,759 ft (2,060 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.81911, −121.87025
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-cultus-mountain-2

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. 1925 BuiltListed only by the register and firelookout.com: a 20-foot tower of 9 by 9 feet. The Deschutes blog and Oregon Lookouts page start with the 1935 tower.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1933 EventA newspaper notice said a telephone line would reach Cultus Mountain, which would be developed as an emergency lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 Built20-foot round tower with a 10x10 foot L-5 cabin; the Oregon Lookouts page gives the cost as $947.24Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  4. No record between 1935 and 1957
  5. 1957 EventForest officials announced a lookout house for the peak; bids for it were rejected as too highSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1958 Replaced by a new structure20-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 cab replaced the 1935 tower; the successful bidder had to remove the old lookout buildingsSources: firetower.org, deschuteslookouts.blogspot.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1963 AbandonedAbandoned, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. 1968 RemovedRemoval of the 1958 tower per the Deschutes County blog (which dates the 1935 tower's removal to 1958); the Oregon Lookouts page dates the surplus sale, stripping and burning of the lookout to 1968Sources: deschuteslookouts.blogspot.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1968 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: April 25, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Cultus Mountain rises about 29 miles southwest of Bend, Oregon, in the Deschutes National Forest.1 In October 1933 a newspaper notice said a telephone line would reach Cultus Mountain, which would be developed as an emergency lookout.2

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com both list a 20-foot tower of 9 by 9 feet built in 1925.3,1 The Deschutes County lookout history and the Oregon Lookouts page start their records in 1935 instead, with a 20-foot round tower and a 10 by 10 foot L-5 cabin.4,2 The Oregon Lookouts page gives the total cost of that 1935 structure as $947.24.2

In 1957 forest officials announced a lookout house for the peak and said a helicopter might be required to haul in the materials.2 Bids were rejected that year as too high.2 In May 1958 the Forest Service called for bids on a new tower and house, and the successful bidder had to remove the old buildings first.2 The planned cabin would have a flat top and measure about 15 by 15 feet.2 The replacement tower, 20 feet tall and built of treated timber with an R-6 cab, went up in 1958.3,4

The register and firelookout.com both say it was abandoned in 1963.3,1 The Deschutes County blog instead gives 1968 as the year the 1958 tower was removed, and the Oregon Lookouts page dates the surplus sale, stripping and burning of the lookout to 1968.4,2

The register says the lookout is now gone.3 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains of the tower on the summit, or whether the peak is open to visitors.

  1. Cultus Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/cultusmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Cultus Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/cultus-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Cultus Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/cultus-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Deschutes County Fire Lookouts, https://deschuteslookouts.blogspot.com/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Cultus Mountain Lookout 1950s
Cultus Mountain Lookout 1950sPhoto: Rex Kamstra 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, type, what it is built of, status, 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. 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
  3. 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.