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Fire lookout · Wasco County, Oregon

Mount Wilson Lookout Site

Wasco County summit lookout: 1922 pole platform (FFLOS) vs 1923 steel tower (newspapers); 1934 L-4 replacement; gone by 1969; site now inside Warm Springs Reservation.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Summit lies within the Warm Springs Indian Reservation (register); the sources give no visitor rule.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1969 per the register; the summit now lies inside the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-ft pole L-4 tower (1934 replacement)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1922
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,599 ft (1,707 m)
Agency
Warm Springs Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Wasco County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.06646, −121.65845
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-mount-wilson

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 3.7 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. 1911 EventLookout established at the summit; a first Osborne fire-finder installed on a post in the openSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1918 StaffedErnest Thun on the lookout (newspaper clipping)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1921 EventPortland firm awarded contract for two steel lookout tops, one for Mount WilsonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1922 Built30-ft pole platform tower built, per the registerSource: firetower.org
  5. 1923 Built35-ft steel tower and cabin hauled to the summit by tractor and completed that summer, per 1923 newspaper accountsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1923 StaffedRiley Wiesbeck, Dudley Wiesbeck and Rodney Keating as lookout men; 16 fires reported from the station that summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1934 Replaced by a new structure20-ft pole L-4 tower replaced the 30-ft pole platformSource: firetower.org
  8. No record between 1934 and 1956
  9. 1956 AlteredNew tower legs installedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1969 RemovedAbandoned in the 1960s; gone by 1969Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. 1972 EventBoundary adjustment put the Forest Service lookout inside the Warm Springs ReservationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1972 and 2010
  13. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 21, 2010 as US 663, OR 95; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  14. 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.

A lookout was set up on Mount Wilson in 1911, with an early Osborne fire-finder mounted on a post in the open.1 In 1921 a Portland firm won a contract for two steel lookout tops, one of them for Mount Wilson.1 In 1923 a ranger's crew hauled a cabin and a 35-foot steel tower to the summit behind a tractor.1 The register gives a different account of the tower: a 30-foot pole platform built in 1922.2 The two accounts disagree about what stood on the summit before 1934.2,1

Lookout men worked the summit in these years. Ernest Thun was on the lookout in 1918, and Riley Wiesbeck, Dudley Wiesbeck and Rodney Keating finished the cabin and tower in 1923.1 Keating, a University of Oregon student, spent that summer on the mountain.1 The station reported 16 fires that season, and over half were small-grain fires.1 The nearest water was about three-quarters of a mile away, reached by a 1,000-foot descent.1

In 1934 a 20-foot pole L-4 tower replaced the platform.2 A 1956 record notes new tower legs.1 The register says the lookout was abandoned during the 1960s and had vanished by 1969.2 A second listing dates the lookout's run from 1934 to 1969.3 A 1972 boundary change between the national forest and the Warm Springs Reservation left the lookout inside the reservation.1

The summit now lies inside the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, which the register lists as its administrator.2 Anyone planning a visit would be on reservation land.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.

  1. Mount Wilson - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-wilson.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Wilson Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/mount-wilson-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mount Wilson Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wilson.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Wilson Lookout Site
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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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, access, staffing, 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

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