FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Klamath County, Oregon

Horse Fly Mountain Lookout

A 1961 R-6 cab on a 41-foot timber tower in the Fremont National Forest, with earlier 1930s towers and a summer-staffed post.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 flat-top cab with catwalk on a 41-foot treated timber towerThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
6,442 ft (1,964 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.26395, −121.04859
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-horse-fly-mountain

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 3.9 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. 1932 BuiltPlatform tower established by the Klamath Forest Protective Association half a mile southeast of the summit, per firelookout.com. The register instead places a sawn-timber lookout on the southern point.Sources: firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  2. 1934 Built37-foot L-4 tower; the register places the first tower on the northern point in 1934 as an L-4 on a trestle-type frameSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1960
  4. 1960 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1961 Replaced by a new structureCurrent R-6 flat-top cab with catwalk on a 41-foot treated timber tower replaced the 1934 towerSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1961 and 2000
  7. 2000 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 1, 2000 as US 332, OR 34Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Horse Fly Mountain has two summits in the Fremont National Forest, about nine miles south of Bly in Klamath County.1,2 The register says the first lookout, built of sawn timbers and boards, stood on the southern summit.1 Firelookout.com instead lists a platform tower from 1932, put up by the Klamath Forest Protective Association half a mile southeast of the peak, and a 37-foot L-4 tower from 1934 that the present tower replaced.2 The register places its first tower, an L-4 on a trestle-type frame, on the northern point in 1934.1 The two accounts do not agree on where the early structures stood or when they went up.1,2

The present R-6 cab, which has a catwalk, sits on a 41-foot treated timber tower and dates from 1961.1,2 The register's built field gives 1960, although its own description gives 1961.1 The register dates a standby period to the 1970s, after which the lookout came back into use.1

The register says the lookout has been staffed in recent years, and firelookout.com says it is staffed in the summer.1,2 A Forest Service fuel-break project on the roads near it was signed on February 26, 2025, and is listed as completed.3 I found no public access rules or rental listing for Horse Fly Mountain.

  1. Horse Fly Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/horse-fly-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Horsefly Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/horsefly.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Horsefly Lookout Roadside Fuel Breaks, USDA Forest Service Fremont-Winema National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/fremont-winema/projects/66687 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Horse Fly Mountain Lookout - 2016
Horse Fly Mountain Lookout - 2016 (2016)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Horse Fly Mountain Lookout - 1945
Horse Fly Mountain Lookout - 1945 (1945)Photo: National Archive, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Horsefly Mtn. in 1948
Horsefly Mtn. in 1948 (1948)Photo: David Marshall and Bruce Amsbary, via firelookout.com · source
Horsefly Mtn. in 2002
Horsefly Mtn. in 2002 (2002)Photo: David Marshall and Bruce Amsbary, 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: 1960
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1961
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1957

    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, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  6. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, staffing, 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.