FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Wallowa County, Oregon

Lookout Mountain Lookout Site-WWNF II

Also known as Lookout Mountain

Wallowa County lookout: 1932-34 cabin and pole tower, 82-ft tower built 1964, destroyed in a 1967 forest fire and never replaced; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in a 1967 forest fire and never replaced; no source describes what remains at the site today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

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

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower82-foot treated-timber R-6 tower with cab (built 1964); earlier 14x16 cabin (1933) and 50-foot pole tower with cab (1934)The design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
82 ft (25.0 m)
Elevation
6,792 ft (2,070 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Wallowa County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.31190, −116.72778
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lookout-mountain-lookout-site-wwnf-ii

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 its recorded height.

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 BuiltWeebly timeline: a tower with cabin erected that year; a 1954 history says Charles V. Marks helped build the cabin and tower in 1932. The register gives 1933 and 1934 insteadSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  2. 1933 Built14x16-foot cabin (register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1934 Built50-foot pole tower with cab (register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1952
  5. 1952 Staffed1954 forest history says Marks held the lookout fireman job until the end of the 1952 seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1964 Replaced by a new structure82-foot treated-timber R-6 tower built 1964 (register and firelookout.com). A 1963 annual report quoted on Weebly mentions one new tower; the year is not settledSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1967 DestroyedTower destroyed in a 1967 forest fire and never replaced; Record-Courier item dated August 24, 1967 describes a 1,100-acre blaze that started by destroying the towerSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1967 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 19, 2011 with Former Fire Lookout SitesSource: firetower.org
  10. 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 is a former lookout site in Wallowa County, Oregon, inside the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.1,2

A 1932 timeline on Weebly says a tower with a cabin was erected that year, and a 1954 forest history credits Charles V. Marks with helping put up the cabin and tower in 1932.1 The register gives a later sequence: a 14-by-16-foot cabin in 1933, then a 50-foot pole tower with a cab in 1934.2,3 The register dates the 82-foot treated-timber tower that followed to 1964.2,3 A 1963 annual report, quoted on Weebly, mentions one new tower on the mountain, so the sources disagree on that year.1

The 1954 history says Marks kept the lookout post through the close of the 1952 season and gives his total time there as 20 years.1 firelookout.com names a Charlie W. Marks for several seasons between 1936 and 1951, which gives a different middle initial, and lists other lookout staff from 1955 to 1967.3

On August 24, 1967, the Record-Courier reported a 1,100-acre blaze in the Imnaha-Snake country that began when it destroyed the Lookout Mountain tower.1 The paper said heat from the cabin blaze set the tower alight, and that the tower dated from 1964.1

The register and firelookout.com both say the 82-foot tower was destroyed in a 1967 forest fire and never replaced.2,3 Right after the fire, a forest official said the tower's legs were still standing, with no sign of the cabin.1

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Lookout Mountain, FOREST LOOKOUTS (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lookout-mountain6.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lookout Mountain Lookout Site-WWNF II, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/lookout-mountain-lookout-site-wwnf-ii/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lookout Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lookoutmtnw.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lookout Mountain Lookout Site-WWNF II
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. 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: 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.