FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Halls Point Lookout

R-6 flat-roof ground cab on Bald Mountain ridge, Jackson County, OR; register and two sites date it 1956, a 1957 newspaper says finished that autumn; staffed in summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Staffed in summer. Reached by a gated forest road and a walk of about 0.3 mile. Inferred from a 2023 visit account; no Forest Service access rule was found.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Turn west from Highway 62 onto Road 64, take Road 200 at the fork 2.8 miles along, drive 5.6 miles to the gate, then walk about 0.3 mile up the road. Gate hours are not given in the sources.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2023-08-22)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabR-6 flat-roof ground cabinThe designs: R-6, D-6, L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,470 ft (1,363 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.80388, −122.54906 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-halls-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 3.8 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. 1912 BuiltTree crow's nest platform on the site, per firelookout.com (year given as 'about 1912')Source: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1912 and 1930
  3. 1930 BuiltL-4 structure in the 1930s; exact year not given. firelookout.com calls it a tower, cherylhill.net a cabinSources: firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  4. No record between 1930 and 1956
  5. 1956 BuiltBuild year per the register, firelookout.com and cherylhill.net. The 1957 newspaper reports below conflict with itSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  6. 1957 BuiltNewspaper items quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page: a new lookout to be built soon (August 1957); the flat-top structure recently finished (October 1957)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1958 StaffedNewspaper item quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page: a couple stationed at the lookout for the summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1958 and 2003
  9. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003 as NHLR US 491, OR 84Source: nhlr.org
  10. No record between 2003 and 2023
  11. 2023 StaffedVisit account dated 2023-08-22 lists the status as StaffedSource: cherylhill.net
  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.

Halls Point sits at the north end of Bald Mountain, a north-south ridge that also carries the White Point and Whetstone Point lookout sites.1 It lies about two miles north of White Point.2 Firelookout.com says the site began around 1912 with a tree crow's nest platform, and that an L-4 tower followed in the 1930s.2 The cherylhill.net history calls that same building a cabin.1

The present cab is an R-6 flat-roof design at the north end of the ridge.2,3 It was built partly to replace the old Whetstone Point lookout.3 The register says Whetstone, in the middle of the ridge, did not cover the northern country well.4

Most sources give 1956 as the build year.1,2,4 A 1957 newspaper item quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page said in August that a new lookout would be built soon, and in October that the flat-top structure had recently been finished.3 The dates do not match, so treat 1956 as the register's date rather than a settled one.

A three-foot overhang took the place of the heavy shutters that older lookouts used against sun glare. Lighter shutters were to be used in winter to protect the windows.3

The cab was in summer use by 1958. A September 1958 newspaper item quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page describes a couple who had been stationed there for the summer months.3 Firelookout.com says it is staffed every summer.2 A 2023 visit account lists it as staffed.1

The sources I read name no notable fire or smoke watched from this lookout.

The register says the old Whetstone lookout was burned in 1958,4 while the cherylhill.net history says its tower was removed that year.1 None of the sources describes a later rebuild or move of the cab.

The Forest Service administers the lookout.4 The route turns west from Highway 62 onto Road 64, takes Road 200 at a fork 2.8 miles along, and then drives 5.6 miles to a gate.1 From the gate, the lookout is about a 0.3-mile walk up the road.1 The sources do not say when the gate is open, so check road conditions with the Forest Service before you go.

  1. Halls Point, cherylhill.net, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2023/08/22/halls-point/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Halls Point Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/hallspoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Halls Point, Oregon Lookouts (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/halls-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Halls Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/halls-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Halls Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Halls Point L.O.
Halls Point L.OPhoto: the Dave Bula collection and Dominic Luebbers, via firelookout.com · source
Halls Point in 2001
Halls Point in 2001 (2001)Photo: the Dave Bula collection and Dominic Luebbers, via 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 location by 630 m.

    • FFLA: 42.80388, −122.54906
    • NHLR: 42.80712, −122.55533

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1956
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1930
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1956

    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, 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: location, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.