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Fire lookout · Crook County, Oregon

Dry Mountain Lookout

1932 Aermotor lookout on the Ochoco NF in Harney County, Oregon, preceded by a 1929 tree platform; NHLR-registered 2002, used for emergencies, listed for decommission in 2017.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Pages describe emergency use; the directory lists the site as legally accessible but unmanned; no source says the lookout itself is open to the public

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
About 12 miles of gravel from the junction of NF-41 and NF-4120; the last 4 miles are rough (trip report). Check with the managing agency before going.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower70-foot Aermotor tower with 7-by-7-foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1930
Height
70 ft (21.3 m)
Elevation
6,241 ft (1,902 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Crook County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.67200, −119.56260
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-dry-mountain

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1929 First staffedJack Choate occupied a platform built near the top of a yellow pine tree on the summitSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, theroamingcivic.com
  2. 1930 BuiltCabin built at the base of the steel tower site in December 1930 (the 1930 item calls it a fireman's cabin)Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, theroamingcivic.com
  3. 1931 EventTwo 1931 newspaper items: a 75-foot steel tower received at the Prineville warehouse on March 17; a later item gives 73 feet to the observation floor and says it might go up in MaySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1932 Built70-foot Aermotor tower with 7-by-7-foot cab; the Register and most other pages give 1932Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  5. No record between 1932 and 1970
  6. 1970 EventMoved to emergency use in the 1970s; the source gives the decade onlySource: theroamingcivic.com
  7. No record between 1970 and 2000
  8. 2000 StaffedStaffed in extreme weather by the Bureau of Land Management in 2000 and later yearsSources: nhlr.org, theroamingcivic.com
  9. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 16, 2002 as US 426, OR 51Source: nhlr.org
  10. No record between 2002 and 2017
  11. 2017 EventListed for decommission by the Forest Service as of 2017Source: theroamingcivic.com
  12. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Dry Mountain is the southernmost lookout on the Ochoco National Forest, in Harney County, Oregon.1,2 Its first lookout was a platform rather than a tower.3,4 In 1929 a platform was built near the top of a yellow pine, and Jack Choate occupied it as lookout.3,4 A cabin was built at the base of the site in December 1930.3,4

The steel tower came later. The Register dates the 70-foot Aermotor tower, with its 7-by-7-foot metal cab, to 1932, and most other pages agree.1,2,5,4 Two 1931 newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts history page describe the tower. One says a 75-foot tower reached the Prineville warehouse on March 17. The other gives 73 feet to the observation floor and says it might go up in May.3 The sources differ on the height, and neither 1931 item confirms when the tower went up.

The Register says the lookout is still staffed, and that the Bureau of Land Management has staffed it in extreme weather in 2000 and later years.1 The Roaming Civic's history section says the same kind of extreme-weather staffing happened in the 2000s.4 The sources read do not name any fire the lookout watched.

The lookout was listed on the National Historic Lookout Register on July 16, 2002.1 The Roaming Civic says the tower was moved to emergency use in the 1970s, and that the Forest Service listed it for decommission as of 2017.4

Cheryl Hill's 2018 visit page lists the site as used for emergencies, and firelookout.com says the tower and ground cabin are available for emergencies.5,2 Cheryl Hill's directory of standing Oregon lookouts, dated July 2026, lists Dry Mountain as unmanned and legally accessible (the directory says this means legal access to the site, not access to the lookout itself), though it warns that its information may be out of date.6 A trip report puts the gravel stretch at 12 miles, starting where NF-41 meets NF-4120, and calls the final four miles rough.4 The sources also disagree on who runs the site. The Register names the U.S. Forest Service, firelookout.com lists the Ochoco National Forest with the BLM, and Cheryl Hill's page says the Malheur National Forest manages it.1,2,5 Anyone planning a visit should check with the managing agency first, since the status may have changed since these pages were written.

  1. Dry Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/dry-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Dry Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/drymtn96.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Dry Mountain, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/dry-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Dry Mountain, The Roaming Civic, https://theroamingcivic.com/tag/dry-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Dry Mountain, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2018/05/29/dry-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Dry Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Dry Mtn. in 1940
Dry Mtn. in 1940 (1940)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Dry Mtn. L.O.
Dry Mtn. L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: height, photos, 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: design, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: what it is built of, links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.