Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon
Monument Mountain Lookout Site
Grant County, OR wooden lookout about three miles north of Monument, built 1946-47, last staffed 1978, torn down in 2009; no public access.
- Gone
- Closed
- Verified
Closed
The site is closed to visitors. Register and firelookout.com both say there is no public access
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Torn down in 2009; no source we read describes what remains at the site
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower55-foot wooden L-4 tower (Register and firelookout.com); 1947 district report lists a 52-foot prefabricated tower with a 14x14 houseThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Wood
- Built
- 1946
- Height
- 55 ft (16.8 m)
- Elevation
- 3,876 ft (1,181 m)
- Agency
- Oregon Dept. of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Grant County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 44.86155, −119.42649
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-monument-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 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
- 1945 EventApril 1945 plan for a 50-foot lookout tower about three miles north of Monument, with a 14x14 cabin on topSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1946 BuiltFour main posts up by June 28, 1946; the tower came in by truck in August 1946Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1946 StaffedClayton Sweek to be lookout man through the 1946 fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1947 BuiltRegister gives build year 1947; 1947 district report lists a 52-foot prefabricated tower with a 14x14 houseSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1948 StaffedAubrey Crum and Mrs. Crum move into the Monument Lookout on June 14, 1948Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1951 StaffedMrs. Edna Crum released from her duties as lookout on October 4, 1951Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1951 and 1966
- 1966 AlteredLookout painted; trap door, railings, windows and screens repairedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1978 Last staffedLast staffed in 1978 (Register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- No record between 1978 and 2001
- 2001 FireThreatened by a forest fire in 2001Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 2009 RemovedTorn down in 2009; Forest Lookouts says the 55-foot tower was removed during the winterSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 24, 2011 as FFLOS US 1074, OR 432; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Plans for a lookout on Monument Mountain in Grant County, Oregon, were under way by April 1945.1 The planned 50-foot tower was to stand roughly three miles north of the Monument settlement, near the North Fork of the John Day River.1 By late June 1946 the four main posts were up, and the tower came in by truck that August.1 The Register dates the tower to 1947.2
The sources disagree on the height. A 1947 district report lists a 52-foot prefabricated tower with a 14-by-14 house.1 The Register and firelookout.com both call it a 55-foot wooden L-4 tower.2,3
Clayton Sweek was to be the lookout through the 1946 fire season.1 Aubrey Crum and his wife later staffed the station for several summers. They moved in on June 14, 1948, and Mrs. Edna Crum was relieved of lookout duty on October 4, 1951.1 The Register says the tower was last staffed in 1978.2
A forest fire threatened the tower in 2001.2 It was torn down in 2009.2,3 The Forest Lookouts history says it was removed during the winter of that year, and the Register and firelookout.com give the same year.1,2,3
The Register lists the Oregon Department of Forestry as administrator.2 It also says there is no public access.2 Both the Register and firelookout.com describe the tower as torn down, and no source we read describes what remains at the site.2,3
- Monument Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/monument-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Monument Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/monument-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Monument Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/monumentmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1074 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Monument Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Monument Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.