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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Frazier Point Lookout

100-foot treated timber lookout in the Malheur NF, Grant County, built 1936-37 per most sources; last staffed 2008, condemned after a 2019 inspection, NHLR-registered 2003.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Stairs boarded over to block climbing and the tower is condemned; the gravel spur road (NF-849) has no gate, and the directory lists the site as legally accessible but abandoned

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Gravel spur NF-849 from Road 1630, no gate, about one mile to the tower. Stairs are boarded over; do not climb the condemned tower.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot guyed treated timber tower with 7-by-7-foot L-6 wooden cabThe design: L-6
Built of
Wood
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
6,280 ft (1,914 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.09465, −118.64858
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-frazier-point

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. 1935 EventPanorama photos taken at the first lookout site, a rocky point about half a mile to the southeast; the first post was set up as an emergency lookout in the early 1930s (exact year not given)Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 Built100-foot tower dated 1936 by firelookout.com, Cheryl Hill and The Roaming Civic; the Forest Lookouts archive file dates completion to 1937 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firelookout.com, theroamingcivic.com, cherylhill.net
  3. 1937 BuiltCompleted 1937 per Malheur National Forest archive file quoted by Forest Lookouts, 1/2 mile north of the first site; a January 7, 1937 newspaper item describes the tower as already built by CCC enrollees, with the lookout to use it the next summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1938 Built14-by-16-foot frame living quarters and 20-by-20-foot garage per archive file; The Roaming Civic dates the ground cabin, which was the garage, to 1938Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, theroamingcivic.com
  5. 1940 BuiltNHLR gives 1940 for the Malheur National Forest station including the ground house living quartersSource: nhlr.org
  6. 1943 StaffedMerlin J. McMullen named as lookout in a 1943 Burns Times-Herald itemSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1943 and 1970
  8. 1970 BurnedOriginal 14-by-16-foot living quarters burned in the 1970s (decade only); the garage was converted to housingSources: firelookout.com, theroamingcivic.com
  9. No record between 1970 and 2003
  10. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 8, 2003 as US 456, OR 59Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2008 Last staffedStaffed every season until 2008Sources: firelookout.com, theroamingcivic.com
  12. 2019 Condition assessmentInspection notice marks the tower condemned for major deficiencies; sign dated 7/30/2019Sources: nhlr.org, theroamingcivic.com
  13. 2021 EventCheryl Hill's July 2021 visit notes the Malheur National Forest plans to remove the towerSource: cherylhill.net
  14. 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.

Frazier Point sits in the Malheur National Forest in Grant County, Oregon, about 27 miles southeast of John Day.1,2 The first lookout was on a rocky point about half a mile away, set up as an emergency post in the early 1930s.1,3 Panorama photos were taken from that first site in October 1935.3 The present tower stands about half a mile north of it.3 Most sources date the 100-foot treated timber tower to 1936, but an archive file quoted by Forest Lookouts says it was completed in 1937.1,3,4,5 A January 7, 1937 newspaper item describes the tower as already built by CCC enrollees and says the lookout would use it the next summer.3

Lookouts worked the tower every season through 2008, and staffing ended that year.1,4 Forest Lookouts quotes a 1943 Burns Times-Herald item that names Merlin J. McMullen as the lookout.3 The sources read do not describe any fire the lookout spotted.

The original cabin was lost to fire in the 1970s, and the garage was later turned into housing.1 The National Historic Lookout Register listed the site on January 8, 2003.2 In July 2019 an inspection notice marked the tower as condemned for major deficiencies, and the Forest Service has it on a plan to tear it down.2,4

When the NHLR and The Roaming Civic recorded the site, the stairs were boarded over to keep people off the tower.2,4 A gravel spur, NF-849, has no gate and leads about one mile to the site.4,5 A 2026 directory lists the site as abandoned but legally accessible, a column that means legal access to the site rather than to the lookout itself.6 Visitors should stay off the condemned tower, and anyone planning a trip should check with the Malheur National Forest first.

  1. Frazier Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/frazierpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Frazier Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/frazier-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Frazier Point, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/frazier-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Frazier Point L.O., The Roaming Civic, https://theroamingcivic.com/2022/05/27/frazier-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Frazier Point, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2021/08/11/frazier-point/ (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 Frazier Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Frazier Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
7/30/2019 condemnation notice
7/30/2019 condemnation notice (2019)Photo: Chris Earle, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Frazier Point in 1936
Frazier Point in 1936 (1936)Photo: firelookout.com · source
Frazier Point in 1941
Frazier Point in 1941 (1941)Photo: firelookout.com · source
Frazier Point L.O.
Frazier Point L.OPhoto: firelookout.com · source
Frazier Point in 1956
Frazier Point in 1956 (1956)Photo: firelookout.com · source
Frazier Point L.O.
Frazier Point L.OPhoto: firelookout.com · source
Frazier Point in 2014
Frazier Point in 2014 (2014)Photo: firelookout.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1940
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1936
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1936

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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, staffing, 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: 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: register numbers, 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

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