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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Indian Rock Lookout

An R-6 flat-top ground cabin built in 1957 on the Malheur National Forest, replacing a 1929 cupola shelter, still staffed each summer and not available as a public rental.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Active staffed lookout on the Malheur National Forest, Blue Mountain Ranger District; not a public rental (the forest's rentable lookout is Fall Mountain, not Indian Rock)

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
No drive-up/trail detail found in sources consulted
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2023)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabR-6 flat top ground cabinThe designs: R-6, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,324 ft (2,232 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service - Malheur National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.75678, −118.69172
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-indian-rock

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. 1929 BuiltCupola from a standard D-6 lookout house erected as an initial shelter on Indian Rock, for about $85 plus contributed laborSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1929 and 1953
  3. 1953 StaffedNewspaper item describes a summer lookout staffer heading to Indian Rock LookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1957 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1957 Replaced by a new structureNew wooden ground house (R6 flat top) built by Forest Service crews, replacing the 1929 structureSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1957 and 1976
  7. 1976 EventVandalism reported: propane tank regulator and copper tubing removedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1976 and 2022
  9. 2022 FireCrockets Knob Fire burned in August 2022 in the vicinity of Indian Rock; exact impact on the structure unclear from sources reviewedSource: cherylhill.net
  10. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, July 3, 2022Source: nhlr.org
  11. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Indian Rock's first lookout structure went up in December 1929: a cupola salvaged from a standard D-6 lookout house, set down on the rock as a shelter while a full cabin was planned to go underneath it, built for a reported $85 plus contributed labor.1,2 Newspaper notices from the 1950s show the lookout staffed through the fire season, including a 1953 item about a college student from George Fox College heading up to Indian Rock in the Whitman National Forest for a summer's work.3 That older structure was replaced in September 1957, when Forest Service crews built a new wooden ground house on the Blue Mountain district; this is the USFS R6 "flat top" cabin that still stands today.4,1

The lookout has not had an easy run since. A 1976 Blue Mountain Eagle item reported vandalism at the site, with a propane tank regulator and copper tubing stripped out.3 More recently, an August 2022 wildfire, the Crockets Knob Fire, burned in the vicinity of Indian Rock, though accounts of the blaze and the lookout's condition afterward vary and this research did not turn up a clear statement of damage to the structure itself.5

Indian Rock sits in what is now the Malheur National Forest, administered from the Blue Mountain Ranger District, and by multiple firsthand accounts it continues to be staffed by a fire lookout through the summer season.4,6 A visitor in October 2023 recorded its status simply as "Staffed."6 The Malheur National Forest does rent out one of its lookouts to the public, but that is Fall Mountain Lookout, not Indian Rock, so this one is not available as a vacation rental.7 It was entered on the National Historic Lookout Register in July 2022.1

  1. Indian Rock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/indian-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Indian Rock, Forest Lookouts (Oregon Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/indian-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Indian Rock, Forest Lookouts (Oregon Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/indian-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Indian Rock Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/indianrock.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  5. Indian Rock Lookout Wrapped, Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/category/malheur-national-forest/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  6. Indian Rock, Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/category/malheur-national-forest/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  7. Cabin Rentals, Malheur National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/malheur/recreation/cabin-rentals (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Indian Rock Lookout - 2008
Indian Rock Lookout - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Indian Rock Lookout - 1947
Indian Rock Lookout - 1947 (1947)Photo: Malheur National Forest, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Indian Rock cupola cabin
Indian Rock cupola cabinPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Indian Rock cupola cabin
Indian Rock cupola cabinPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Indian Rock L.O.
Indian Rock L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Indian Rock L.O.
Indian Rock L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Indian Rock in 2013
Indian Rock in 2013 (2013)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Indian Rock in 2014
Indian Rock in 2014 (2014)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the Malheur National Forest, 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  7. 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
  8. 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.