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Fire lookout · Hood River County, Oregon

Indian Mountain Lookout Site

Hood River County, OR lookout: cupola house from 1916 or 1923, burned 1932, L-4 cab 1933 or 1936, removed by 1965-67; foundation remnants and a summit register remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in the 1960s; a few remnants of the old lookout foundation and a summit register remain (Oregon Hikers)

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Oregon Hikers lists a moderate loop hike that reaches the summit; the sources read describe no closure

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Oregon Hikers lists an 11.5-mile loop with 2,640 ft of gain that reaches the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola house (1923 per Forest Lookouts), later a 14x14 L-4 early model cabinThe designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1916
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,894 ft (1,492 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Hood River County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.54789, −121.82896
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-indian-mountain

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1916 BuiltRegister and Oregon Hikers date the first cupola cabin to 1916; Forest Lookouts starts its account in 1923Sources: firetower.org, oregonhikers.org
  2. 1918 StaffedNita Vogel and Ivy Gray living in a summit lookout house, per a 1918 newspaper quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1923 DestroyedD-6 lookout house destroyed in a fire caused by a burning flueSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1923 RebuiltStandard D-6 cupola house constructedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1925 FireFire about one mile southwest of the top of Larch Mountain first reported by Lookout Waldron from the summit stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1932 BurnedStation burned to the ground, per a Morning Oregonian report dated September 27, 1932Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1933 Replaced by a new structureCupola replaced with an L-4 cab (register and Oregon Hikers); Forest Lookouts gives 1936Sources: firetower.org, oregonhikers.org
  8. 1936 Replaced by a new structureForest Lookouts: old cupola replaced by a 14x14 L-4 early model cabinSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1936 and 1964
  10. 1964 AbandonedLookout station deactivatedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1965 RemovedRegister and Forest Fire Lookout Association: gone by 1965Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  12. 1967 RemovedForest Lookouts: removed around 1967Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  13. No record between 1967 and 2010
  14. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: August 26, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  15. 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.

Indian Mountain rises in Hood River County, Oregon, and the U.S. Forest Service administered its lookout.1 The sources disagree about when the first lookout went up. The register says a cupola cabin was built in 1916, and Oregon Hikers gives the same start year.1,2 Forest Lookouts instead records that a fire caused by a burning flue destroyed a D-6 lookout house in 1923, and that a standard D-6 cupola house was built that same year.3

By 1918 the summit had a lookout house in use. A newspaper item that Forest Lookouts quotes calls Nita Vogel the first female Forest Service lookout in an Oregon national forest. It says she lived there until fire season ended, with a friend, Ivy Gray.3

On June 25, 1925, a fire about a mile southwest of Larch Mountain's summit was first reported by Lookout Waldron from the Indian Mountain station, according to a Morning Oregonian item quoted by Forest Lookouts.3

The station burned to the ground in September 1932, according to a Morning Oregonian report quoted by Forest Lookouts.3 The replacement is also reported differently. The register says the cupola was replaced with an L-4 cab in 1933, and Oregon Hikers gives 1933 as well.1,2 Forest Lookouts instead describes a 14x14 L-4 early model cabin put up in 1936.3

The station was deactivated in 1964.3 The register says it was gone by 1965, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association also gives 1965.1,4 Forest Lookouts puts its removal around 1967.3 Oregon Hikers ties the end to the mid-1960s lookout demolition, in which the lookout was decommissioned together with many others.2

Today a few remnants of the old lookout foundation remain on the summit, along with a register for hikers to sign, according to Oregon Hikers.2 A moderate loop hike of 11.5 miles, with about 2,640 feet of climbing, reaches the summit.2 No source we read describes the remains in more detail.

  1. Indian Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/indian-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Indian Mountain, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Indian_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Indian Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/indian-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Indian Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/or/indianmtn34.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Indian Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Indian Mountain Lookout Site, 1928
(1928)Photo: Fire Lookout Museum, via 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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

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