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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Flat Lake Lookout Site

Union Co., OR: 40-ft pole tower (1938) replaced in 1954 by an 82-ft timber tower; removed or destroyed in 1975; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1975 per the Former Fire Lookout Sites register; the Fire Lookout page says destroyed that year

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 tower40-foot pole L-4 tower built 1938; replaced 1954 by an 82-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1938
Height
82 ft (25.0 m)
Elevation
4,746 ft (1,447 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.35803, −118.42054
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-flat-lake

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 4.1 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. 1931 StaffedJohn Brigham returned to his duties at Flat Lake (La Grande Observer, July 25, 1931)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 Built40-foot pole L-4 tower constructed; the first lookout was a crow's nest tree platform set up in the late 1920sSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1949 FireLookout spotted two small blazes in the Starkey vicinity (September 12, 1949); Forest Service crews extinguished themSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1950 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Robert Albritton stationed at the lookout for the summer (July 27, 1950 item)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1953 FireLookout spotted a small lightning fire on Tower Ridge, about 25 miles west of La Grande; discovered and suppressed (September 5, 1953)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1954 Replaced by a new structure82-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cab replaced the 40-foot pole towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1954 StaffedJohn Gray, known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1958 StaffedGeorge Moore, known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1958 and 1975
  10. 1975 RemovedTower removed per the Former Fire Lookout Sites register; the Fire Lookout page says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. No record between 1975 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered January 4, 2011; nominated by Irene PotterSource: 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.

The Flat Lake lookout stood in Union County, Oregon, in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, about 17 miles west of La Grande.1 The first lookout here was a tree platform with a crow's nest, put up in the late 1920s.2 A 40-foot pole tower went up on the site in 1938.2 In 1954 an 82-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cab took its place.2,1

A La Grande newspaper reported in July 1931 that John Brigham had returned to his duties at Flat Lake.3 In the summer of 1950, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Albritton were stationed at the lookout.3 The Fire Lookout page names John Gray in 1954 and George Moore in 1958.1

In September 1949 the lookout spotted two small blazes near Starkey, and Forest Service crews put them out.3 Four years later it spotted a small lightning fire on Tower Ridge, about 25 miles west of La Grande, which was suppressed.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the tower was removed in 1975.2 The Fire Lookout page says it was destroyed that year.1 The two sources agree on the year but not on how the tower went.

The National Geodetic Survey has a station record for the tower site. Its description, written by the Forest Service in 1936, places the mark at the center of the lookout tower, about seven miles south of Kamela, and gives directions from Kamela by way of the Flat Lake Guard Station.3 No source we read says what remains at the site today, and we found no information about public access.

  1. Flat Lake Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/flatlake.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Flat Lake Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/flat-lake-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Flat Lake - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/flat-lake.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Flat Lake Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Marker with the name "Fred Wit" 6/2/2001
Marker with the name "Fred Wit" 6/2/2001 (2001)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
6/2/2001
6/2/2001 (2001)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Original tree lookout
Original tree 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, 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: 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, 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.