FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Grant/Baker County, Oregon

Lakes Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as The Lakes

Anthony Lake lookout on The Lakes: first cabin 1912 or 1915, cupola 1926, gone by 1966; a public summit trail today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1966; the summit is a public hike and no source describes lookout remains.

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. Summit trailhead reached by a spur road off the Anthony Lake Highway, per the Oregon Hikers field guide.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About six miles round trip from Anthony Lake; a much rougher road starts only 700 feet below the summit.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabThe design: Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1912
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,522 ft (2,598 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant/Baker County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.94365, −118.24278
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lakes-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.

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. 1912 BuiltFirst 12x12 cabin with roof platform (register, firelookout.com); a June 1915 newspaper note and the field guide say 1915Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1919 StaffedAl Brannan, 1919 to 1921 (firelookout.com list)Source: firelookout.com
  3. 1924 BurnedAccidentally burned in the off-season between 1924 and 1925 (firelookout.com only)Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1926 Replaced by a new structureCupola cabin replaced the first cabin (register, firelookout.com); the history site says a cupola was added to the houseSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1928 StaffedClyde Robertson (firelookout.com list)Source: firelookout.com
  6. 1941 StaffedForestry student arrived in June to spend the summer at the Anthony Lakes lookout station (June 26, 1941 note)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1951 StaffedManned for the summer seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1962 StaffedLeo Mosher in an August 1962 newspaper note; firelookout.com lists Leo PoeSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1966 RemovedGone by 1966; the field guide says demolishedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  10. No record between 1966 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 23, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

Lakes Mountain, also called The Lakes, rises above Anthony Lake in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, in Grant and Baker counties.1,2,3

The register dates the first lookout, a 12 by 12 cabin with a roof platform, to 1912.1 A June 1915 newspaper note mentions a cabin being built at the lookout, and the field guide says it was first constructed in 1915.3,4 The sources disagree on the start date.

Firelookout.com says the first cabin burned by accident in the off-season between 1924 and 1925, and that a cupola cabin took its place in 1926.2 The register also gives 1926 for the cupola cabin.1 A lookout history site instead describes the 1926 work as an enclosed cupola built onto the lookout house.3

Firelookout.com lists Al Brannan for 1919 to 1921 and Clyde Robertson for 1928 as lookout personnel.2 In June 1941 a forestry student arrived at the Anthony Lakes lookout station for the summer.3 A July 1951 note says the lookout was being staffed for the summer.3 A note from August 1962 says visitors had set a record that year, and that the 500th person to make the hike had been registered.3 Firelookout.com lists Leo Poe as the 1962 lookout, while the newspaper note names Leo Mosher.2,3

The lookout was gone by 1966.1,2 The field guide says it was demolished that year.4

The field guide gives directions from the Anthony Lake Highway, up a spur road, to the summit trailhead.4 You can hike from Anthony Lake in about six miles round trip, and a much rougher road starts only 700 feet below the summit.4 The summit is a ten-foot scramble over steep boulders with a metal lightning rod on top, and the guide does not mention any remains of the lookout.4 Check current conditions with the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest before you go.

  1. Lakes Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/lakes-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lakes Mtn. (The Lakes) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lakesmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lakes Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Oregon forest lookouts history site, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lakes-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. The Lakes Lookout Hike, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/The_Lakes_Lookout_Hike (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lakes Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1924
1924 (1924)Photo: 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, what it is built of, 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: 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, 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

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