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Fire lookout · Umatilla County, Oregon

McIntyre Mountain Lookout Site

Gabled L-4 cabin in the Umatilla National Forest, dated 1941; removed or destroyed in 1964, though a 1966 report describes closing. Gone; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone; sources disagree on whether it was removed in 1964 or closed in 1966

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
Ground-level cabGabled L-4 cabin with a garageThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1941
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,200 ft (1,585 m)
Agency
Umatilla National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Umatilla County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.80830, −118.11864
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mcintyre-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 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. 1926 EventOregon lookout history says the lookout was built and manned first about 1926; no detail on that structureSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1926 and 1941
  3. 1941 BuiltGabled L-4 cabin with a garageSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1943 StaffedBarnhart Tack listed as known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1948 StaffedErvin Schoesler stationed at McIntyre, per a Walla Walla Union Bulletin item of September 5, 1948Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1948 and 1964
  7. 1964 RemovedRegister says removed; Firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. 1966 ClosedJuly 1966 Walla Walla Union-Bulletin item, quoted on the Oregon history page, reports the lookout closing that yearSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1966 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: August 20, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  11. 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.

McIntyre Mountain sits in the Umatilla National Forest in Umatilla County, about 18 miles southeast of Milton-Freewater.1,2 An Oregon lookout history page sometimes calls the spot McIntyre Point.1,2,3

The register and Firelookout.com both date the cabin to 1941.1,2 Firelookout.com describes it as a gabled L-4 cabin with a garage.2 The register also has photo captions that place views of the lookout in 1947 and 1956.1 The Oregon history page says the lookout was built and manned first about 1926, which is earlier than the 1941 date. The sources do not explain the gap.3

The cabin sat on a promontory overlooking the South Fork of the Walla Walla River.3 The Oregon history page says it had running water piped to it, a feature lookout towers lacked.3

Firelookout.com names Barnhart Tack as lookout personnel in 1943.2 A September 1948 Walla Walla newspaper item, quoted on the Oregon history page, says Ervin Schoesler was stationed at McIntyre.3

The register says the cabin was removed in 1964, and Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 A July 1966 newspaper item quoted on the Oregon history page reports the closing of the lookout that year, so the sources disagree on how and when the lookout ended.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether visitors can reach it.1,2,3

  1. McIntyre Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/mcintyre-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. McIntyre Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/mcintyremtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. McIntyre Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mcintyre-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1956
McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1956 (1956)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1956
McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1956 (1956)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1947
McIntyre Mountain Lookout 1947 (1947)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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: 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, 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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