Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon
Flagstaff Butte Lookout Site
Union County: 1931 24-foot platform tower, replaced in 1933 by a D-6 cupola cab, removed or destroyed in 1959; a 1972 sale may or may not cover the site, and no source describes what remains.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed (register) or destroyed (firelookout.com) in 1959. No source describes what remains at the site.
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. The 1972 sealed-bid offer and August 1972 sale to O. Gordon Hudson may or may not cover this peak. The August notice calls the site the former Medical Springs Lookout Site. No source says whether visitors can reach it now.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cab (1933), replacing a 24-foot platform tower (1931)The design: D-6
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1931
- Height
- 680 ft (207.3 m)
- Elevation
- 6,511 ft (1,985 m)
- Agency
- Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Union County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 45.07977, −117.51706
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-flagstaff-butte
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
- 1931 Built24-foot platform tower builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1933 Replaced by a new structureD-6 cupola cabin replaced the platform tower; a Baker newspaper item (September 13, 1933) says it was built under the public works programSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1936 StaffedJ.R. Mitchell went to the Flagstaff lookout station to substitute for Claire Fleetwood, who had been injuredSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1936 and 1959
- 1959 RemovedRegister says removed in 1959; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1959Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1972 EventFormer lookout site offered at a sealed-bid sale in July 1972; sold in August 1972 to O. Gordon Hudson of Trail, Oregon, for $789.32. The August notice calls it the former Medical Springs Lookout Site, so the sale may not cover this peak.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1972 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: July 27, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Flagstaff Butte is in Union County, in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, about 28 miles northeast of Baker City.1,2 The first lookout here was a 24-foot platform tower, put up in 1931.1,2 In 1933 a D-6 cupola cabin replaced it.1,2 That September a Baker newspaper reported that the Forest Service was building the lookout under the public works program.3
Newspaper items show people working the station in summer.3 In July 1936 J.R. Mitchell went to the Flagstaff lookout station to substitute for Claire Fleetwood, a forest service employee who had been injured.3 A 1945 La Grande newspaper item reported that a son had spent most of the summer at a camp near the lookout while working for the Forest Service.3
The sources disagree on how the cabin ended. The register says it was "removed in 1959."1 Firelookout.com says it was "Destroyed 1959."2
In 1972 the former lookout site, a roughly five-acre plot of undeveloped land on a 4,680-foot mountain, was offered in a sealed-bid sale.3 In August of that year it sold to O. Gordon Hudson, of Trail, Oregon, for $789.32.3 The August notice calls the site the former Medical Springs Lookout Site, and the register gives 6,511 feet for this peak, so the sources do not clearly tie the sale to Flagstaff Butte.1,3
No source describes what remains at the site today, or whether visitors can reach it now.1,2,3 A 2014 Bend Bulletin travel column described Medical Springs, the community near the lookout, rather than the lookout itself. It found three buildings there, one a former hotel, and an outdoor pool that looked worn.3,4
- Flagstaff Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/flagstaff-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Flagstaff Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/flagstaffbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Flagstaff Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/flagstaff-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Traveling Union County's back roads, The Bulletin (Bend), https://bendbulletin.com/2014/04/06/traveling-union-countys-back-roads/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1118 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Traveling Union County's back roads (The Bulletin (Bend)) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Flagstaff Butte on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Flagstaff Butte on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.