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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Pine Mountain Lookout Site

Forest Service lookout on Pine Mountain east of Bend, rebuilt in 1932 and removed by 1968. A university observatory now stands on the mountain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed by 1968. No source describes what remains of the lookout on the summit 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
Trail
Hikers can walk the ridge from the University of Oregon observatory to the true summit. The observatory is open to the public on Friday and Saturday nights on 7 to 10 weekends from May through September.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cabThe designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1921
Height
28 ft (8.5 m)
Elevation
6,348 ft (1,935 m)
Agency
Deschutes National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.79121, −120.94764
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-pine-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

  1. 1913 EventMoney raised for a telephone line to connect the Pine Mountain lookout with BendSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1915 EventForest Service crew hauled lumber to Pine Mountain to build a lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1918 StaffedB.A. Johnson named as government lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1921 BuiltD-6 cupola cabin builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1929 EventLightning struck the lookout house. Morning Oregonian (Oct. 9): Ernest Putnam was in the tower and was not injured. Bend Bulletin (Oct. 8): Putnam was resting on his bed and was temporarily blinded by the flashSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1931 EventBend Bulletin (Sept. 11, 1931): new 50-foot tower planned for the fall or early next spring; present tower to be moved up the hillSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1932 FireFire in the Big Springs burn of 1930, just west of Bend, first spotted by Putnam from Pine Mountain (Bend Bulletin, July 21, 1932)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1932 Altered50-foot wooden tower with 7x7-foot cab added alongside the cabinSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1932 and 1951
  10. 1951 Replaced by a new structureRegister: 41-foot treated timber L-4 tower replaced both earlier structuresSource: firetower.org
  11. 1952 Replaced by a new structureOregon lookout history: 28-foot CT-2 tower with 14x14 L-4 model 1936 cab (date and height differ from the register)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1952 and 1968
  13. 1968 RemovedSalvaged and removed; register says gone by 1968Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  14. No record between 1968 and 2011
  15. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 7, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  16. 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.

Pine Mountain sits east of Bend and south of U.S. Route 20.1 Money was raised in 1913 for a telephone line linking the Pine Mountain lookout to Bend,2 and in 1915 a Forest Service crew hauled lumber to Pine Mountain to build a lookout.2 A D-6 cupola cabin went up in 1921.3,4 A 1931 newspaper report planned a new 50-foot tower, with the present one moved up the hill.2 In 1932 a 50-foot wooden tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab was added alongside the cabin.3,4

Sources disagree about what came next. The register says a 41-foot treated timber L-4 tower replaced both in 1951, while the Oregon lookout history describes a 28-foot tower with a 14-by-14 L-4 cab, completed in 1952.3,2

B.A. Johnson is named as the government lookout in 1918.2 Ernest Putnam was the lookout in October 1929, when lightning struck the lookout house. One paper said he was in the tower; another said he was resting on his bed.2 In July 1932 Putnam first spotted a fire in the Big Springs burn of 1930, just west of Bend.2

The lookout was taken down for salvage in 1968.2 A different site history gives the tower's span as 1921 to 1951.4

The mountain now has a University of Oregon observatory, eight miles south of Highway 20 from Millican.5 The observatory hosts public evenings on Friday and Saturday during 7 to 10 weekends between May and September.5 A Forest Service campground sits across from the observatory.5 Hikers can walk the ridge from the observatory to the true summit.5 No source describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout today.

  1. Pine Mountain (Oregon), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Mountain_(Oregon) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pine Mountain, Forest Lookouts of Oregon, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/pine-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pine Mountain Lookout Site (US 1033), Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/pine-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Pine Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/pinemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Pine Mountain Hike, Field Guide, Oregon Hikers, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Pine_Mountain_Hike (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pine Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1923
1923 (1923)Photo: 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, what it is built of, 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: design, 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, status, agency, 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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