FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Baker County, Oregon

Lookout Mountain Lookout Site-MNF

Also known as Lookout Mountain

Malheur NF summit lookout: a 20 ft pole L-4 tower built in 1931 and removed or destroyed in the 1950s; a former lookout site with a hike to the top.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in the 1950s per the register; firelookout.com says destroyed in the 1950s

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 hike to the summit; no source mentions a closure

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Oregon Hikers lists Lookout Mountain via Sunshine Flat, 7.4 miles with 1,750 ft of gain, along a long abandoned road

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,029 ft (2,447 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Baker County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.28882, −118.49535
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lookout-mountain-lookout-site-mnf

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 4.1 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. 1931 BuiltA 20-foot pole L-4 towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1950
  3. 1950 RemovedGiven only as the 1950s. The register says removed; firelookout.com says destroyed; the Rex page says removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1950 and 2011
  5. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on June 24, 2011Source: firetower.org
  6. 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.

Lookout Mountain rises to 8,029 feet in the Malheur National Forest, about 18 miles southwest of Unity in Baker County.1,2 The register says a 20-foot pole L-4 tower went up there in 1931, and firelookout.com gives the same year and tower type.1,2

The tower was gone by the 1950s. The register says it was removed, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed. Both put that in the 1950s.1,2 The Rex's Fire Lookout Page marks the site as removed and gives its survey location as 15S-35E-10.3

The Oregon Hikers field guide calls the summit a former lookout site, set between the Strawberry Mountain and Monument Rock wilderness areas.4 The guide lists a 7.4-mile route to the top, with about 1,750 feet of gain, that runs on a road that has long been abandoned.4 That listing suggests the summit is open to walkers, and none of the sources cited here mentions a closure.4

No source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.

  1. Lookout Mountain Lookout Site-MNF, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/lookout-mountain-lookout-site-mnf/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lookout Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lookoutmtn96a.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lookout Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lookout-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lookout Mountain (Malheur NF), Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Lookout_Mountain_(Malheur_NF) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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, 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

More about this lookout elsewhere

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