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Fire lookout · Wasco County, Oregon

Mill Creek Ridge Lookout Site

Wasco County lookout: a 20-foot pole L-4 tower and cabin built in the 1930s, state-owned from 1950, torn down and burned in fall 1956.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Torn down and burned in fall 1956 per Rex's notes; the register lists removal in 1956 and firelookout.com lists it destroyed in 1956

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 tower20-foot pole L-4 tower with a cabinThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
Unknown
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
3,414 ft (1,041 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Federal land
Location
Wasco County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.50803, −121.42395
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mill-creek-ridge

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 3.8 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. 1937 EventPanorama photographs taken on July 10, 1937Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1950 EventState assumed ownership of Mill Creek Ridge and Postage Stamp stations, March 13, 1950, per a 1949 forest supervisor report quoted in Rex's notesSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1954 AlteredCabin painted inside and outsideSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1956 DestroyedTorn down and burned in fall 1956 per a Barlow District report for 1956; register says removed 1956; firelookout.com says destroyed 1956Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1956 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: August 26, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  7. 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.

Mill Creek Ridge, in Wasco County, had a lookout built in the 1930s.1,2,3 The register describes a 20-foot pole L-4 tower with a cabin.1 Rex's notes record panorama photographs taken on July 10, 1937.3

Rex's notes quote a 1949 forest supervisor's report saying the state took over ownership of this station and Postage Stamp in March 1950, as part of its protection duties.3 The cabin received interior and exterior paint in 1954.3

The register says the lookout was removed in 1956, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 Rex's notes quote a Barlow District report for 1956, logged in February 1957, saying it was taken down and burned the previous fall.3

Oregon Hikers places the old lookout about two miles east of the ridge's westernmost prominence, which its waypoint marks.4 I found no source that describes what remains at the site, or whether the spot is open to visitors.

  1. Mill Creek Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/mill-creek-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mill Creek Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/millcreekridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mill Creek Ridge, Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mill-creek-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mill Creek Ridge West Lookout site, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Mill_Creek_Ridge (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Mill Creek Ridge Lookout
Mill Creek Ridge LookoutPhoto: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mill Creek Ridge Lookout
Mill Creek Ridge LookoutPhoto: Ron Kemnow collection, via 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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: ownership, 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.