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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Prairie Hill Lookout Site

Grant County, OR L-4 ground cab, built 1933 or 1934, staffed in 1942, now gone; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone per the Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com; the Forest Lookouts history lists it as removed, undated

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 cabL-4 cab (Forest Lookouts history calls it a ground cabin)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,980 ft (1,823 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Malheur National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.24709, −118.35691
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-prairie-hill

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 3.8 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. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab built (Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com)Sources: firelookout.com, firetower.org
  2. 1934 BuiltForest Lookouts history gives 1934 for the L-4 ground cabin; differs from the 1933 dateSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 EventOsborne took panorama photographs of the site on September 8, 1935Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 StaffedAugust 1942 John Day Ranger notice: Rolland Laurance came in from the Prairie Hill lookout on business, returning the next daySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on June 25, 2011Source: firetower.org
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Prairie Hill is in Grant County, Oregon, in the Malheur National Forest, about 25 miles southeast of John Day.1,2 The sources describe an L-4 cab, and the Forest Lookouts history calls it a ground cabin.3,1,2

The sources disagree on the year. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com date the cab to 1933,2,1 while the Forest Lookouts history says an L-4 ground cabin went up in 1934.3 Osborne took panorama photographs of the site on September 8, 1935.3

In August 1942 a notice in the John Day Ranger said Rolland Laurance had come in from the Prairie Hill lookout on business and was going back the next day.3

Every source that mentions the cab's fate says it is gone. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says it is now gone,2 and firelookout.com marks it gone too.1 The Forest Lookouts history lists the site as removed, with no date.3 None of the sources says when the cab was taken down.

No source we read describes what remains at the site today, or whether visitors can reach it. The register lists the U.S. Forest Service as administrator, so check with the Malheur National Forest before you go.2

  1. Prairie Hill Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/prairiehill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Prairie Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/prairie-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Prairie Hill, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/prairie-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Prairie Hill Lookout
Prairie Hill LookoutPhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Prairie Hill Lookout 1933
Prairie Hill Lookout 1933 (1933)Photo: Mark Swift 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.