FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

High Ridge Lookout

Umatilla NF lookout: 1941 L-4 on a pole tower, 1959 67-foot R-6 tower; unmanned today; gated access road; NHLR-registered 2004.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Cheryl Hill directory lists it as accessible to the public. A gate on Road 271 may be closed and locked; the catwalk was locked at an October 2021 visit.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Gate on Road 271 may be closed and locked; if so, park and walk about one mile up the road to the tower.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 flat cab on 67-foot treated timber towerThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
67 ft (20.4 m)
Elevation
5,277 ft (1,608 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.68398, −118.10315
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-high-ridge

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 3.7 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. 1928 Eventused as a daily horse-patrol lookout point, 1928-1930Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1941 Built24-foot round timber tower with L-4 cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1949 Eventchanged from Primary Lookout to Lookout Fireman position by the Pendleton DistrictSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1955 Condition assessmentinspection report cautions that advice to discontinue aging lookout towers needs more care; cites High Ridge as case in pointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1957 Alteredtwo false legs added to the old tower to hold it up until a replacement could be erectedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1959 Builtpresent R-6 cab on 67-foot tower; Register and firelookout.com date 1959; Forest files planned 1959 and then said delayed to 1960Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1959 and 2004
  8. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered February 12, 2004Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2005 Condition assessmentNHLR visit report, July 24, 2005: not staffed that day; visitor said staff were away at the time; top not reachableSource: nhlr.org
  10. 2006 Eventvandals broke into the lookout over the Fourth of July weekend and caused significant damageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 2006 and 2021
  12. 2021 Condition assessmentCheryl Hill visit October 17, 2021: no longer staffed for the season; catwalk locked; gate may be closedSource: cherylhill.net
  13. 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.

High Ridge Lookout stands in the Umatilla National Forest in Union County, Oregon, about 11 miles northwest of Elgin.1,2 The site served as a daily horse-patrol lookout point from about 1928 to 1930.3 A 24-foot round timber tower with an L-4 cab went up there in 1941.3 Cheryl Hill's 2021 write-up gives the 1941 tower a height of 40 feet, so the earlier height is not settled.4 By 1957 the old tower needed two false legs to hold it up until a replacement could be built.3

The present tower is a 67-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cab.1,2,4 The Register and firelookout.com date it to 1959.1,2 The Forest's own files, quoted on the history page, first planned it for the 1959 season and then said the work was delayed until 1960.3 A 1963 survey note on that page gives the tower's height as 100 feet.3

Staffing changed over time. In 1949 the Pendleton District changed the site from a primary lookout to a lookout fireman position.3 A 1955 inspection report cautioned that advice to discontinue aging lookout towers needed more care, and it cited High Ridge as a case in point.3 In July 2005 a Register visit found the tower unstaffed that day, and the visitor said the staff were away at the time.1 Firelookout.com says it is staffed in the summer.2

In July 2006 vandals broke in over the Fourth of July weekend and caused significant damage.3

The Register says the tower was on standby for a time and is now in active service.1 Cheryl Hill's directory, as of July 2026, lists it as unmanned but accessible to the public.5 When Cheryl Hill visited in October 2021, the tower was no longer staffed and the catwalk was locked.4

Cheryl Hill's directions run west on Road 31, then onto Roads 270 and 271.4 A gate on Road 271 may be closed and locked, in which case the tower is about a mile's walk up the road.4 The 2005 Register visit report says the visitor could not reach the very top.1 Visitors should treat the locked catwalk as closed.

  1. High Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/high-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. High Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/highridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. High Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/high-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. High Ridge – Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2021/10/24/high-ridge/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon's Standing Lookouts – Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of High Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Summer 2016
Summer 2016 (2016)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
High Ridge in 1955
High Ridge in 1955 (1955)Photo: the Umatilla N.F. and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
High Ridge in 2003
High Ridge in 2003 (2003)Photo: the Umatilla N.F. and Rex Kamstra, 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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1959
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1941
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1959

    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: design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.