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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Fishhole Mountain Lookout Site

Lake County, OR: CCC-built 54-foot timber lookout completed in 1938, manned at least through 1979; pulled down and burned in 1984 (register says 1988).

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower pulled down and burned by a fire crew in 1984 (Forest Lookouts) or 1988 (register)

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
Trail
No tower remains to climb; a 1983 report found the stairs unsafe

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower54-foot timber tower with 14x14 house (1959 inspection); register calls it a 54-foot wooden L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1938
Height
54 ft (16.5 m)
Elevation
7,069 ft (2,155 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Fremont National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.25392, −120.79600
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fishhole-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 its recorded height.

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History

Then and now

  1. 1933 EventSide camp building a road and telephone line to the summit; crew said the road could reach within a quarter mile of the top by OctoberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 EventFirelookout.com lists a 119-foot L-6 tower; the Forest Lookouts sources read do not mention oneSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1938 BuiltLookout tower completed October 10 by CCC men from the Bly camp; cost $2,546.14Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1946 FireLightning fire of 250 to 300 acres east of Bly spotted from the Fishhole lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1947 StaffedDavid Marshall was moving to Fishhole with an FM radio (July 1947); Roy Laird took over that SeptemberSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1947 and 1964
  7. 1964 StaffedFrancis E. Alvord at Fishhole since 1964 (1979 profile)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1977 FireLost Fire burned the Fishhole Guard Station; a fire lookout post had to be abandonedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1983 Condition assessmentBly District Ranger requested a structural survey; stairs and deck found unsafeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1984 RemovedFire crew pulled the tower down with a small Cat and burned the remains; register gives 1988Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  11. No record between 1984 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 20, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

Fishhole Mountain rises to 7,069 feet in Lake County, on the Fremont National Forest, about 24 miles west-northwest of Lakeview.1,2

In September 1933 a side camp was building a road and telephone line to the summit.3 By October the crew reported that the road could reach to within a quarter mile of the top.3

The lookout tower was completed on October 10, 1938, by Civilian Conservation Corps men from the camp at Bly.3 The cost was $2,546.14.3 The register says the CCC built it in 1939,1 and a 1959 inspection says the tower and house were constructed in 1940.3 We could not settle the year. The register calls the tower a 54-foot wooden L-4 tower.1 The 1959 inspection describes a 54-foot treated timber CT-2 tower with a 14-by-14 house.3 One site also lists an earlier 119-foot tower from 1934,2 which the Forest Lookouts page does not mention.3

In 1937 the lookout was an emergency station, occupied only in extremely hot weather.3 Two CCC enrollees from the Bly camp were posted there.3 In August 1946 a lightning fire gutted 250 to 300 acres east of Bly, and the Fishhole lookout spotted it.3 In July 1947 David Marshall was moving to Fishhole, which had no telephone line, so he was to get one of the new frequency-modulated radios.3 Roy Laird took over from him that September.3

A 1979 newspaper profile describes Francis E. "Fishhole Al" Alvord, a lookout on the Fremont since 1951 and at Fishhole since 1964.3 He lived in one-room quarters 55 feet off the ground. Lookout tenders brought water to the top, and his own pulley system hauled it up the 68 steps to the tower.3

In 1973 a newspaper reported that Fishhole was tentatively scheduled to close beginning in 1974, but the 1979 profile shows a lookout still there.3 In August 1977 the Lost Fire burned the Fishhole Guard Station, and a Forest Service spokesman said a fire lookout post had to be abandoned.3 Firelookout.com says the 54-foot tower burned in that fire,2 but the 1979 profile, which describes a manned tower, does not support that.3

A 1983 letter from the Bly District Ranger said the lookout reported more fires than any other on the forest, and asked for a structural survey.3 A report dated August 12 that year found the stairs and deck unsafe and recommended keeping people off the tower.3

In 1984 a fire crew used a small Cat to pull the tower down, then burned what was left.3 The register gives 1988 for the removal.1 We could not reconcile the two dates. No source we read describes the summit today. A 1967 memo said two of the four footings were badly spalled but could be repaired.3 No later source we read says whether any footings remain.

  1. Fishhole Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fishhole-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fishhole Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fishholemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fishhole Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fishhole-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fishhole Mountain Lookout 1960
Fishhole Mountain Lookout 1960 (1960)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fishhole Mountain Lookout
Fishhole Mountain LookoutPhoto: Kandy Hill, Howard Verschoor 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: 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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