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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Spout Springs Lookout Site

Umatilla NF lookout near Elgin: an 83-foot L-4 tower built in 1948 replaced an older one, and a falling tree destroyed it in 1990.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1990 when a tree fell across the guy wires; no source 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

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 tower83-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cab (1948); earlier a 30-foot pole platform with tent, then a 50-foot L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1926
Height
83 ft (25.3 m)
Elevation
5,448 ft (1,661 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Umatilla National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.75574, −118.04341
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-spout-springs

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.

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History

Then and now

  1. 1926 BuiltForest Lookouts quotes an August 1926 account of a 50-foot tower found framed and ready to raise; the register and firelookout.com date the 50-foot tower to 1935Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 Built50-foot L-4 tower, per firetower.org and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1943 Condition assessmentA 1943 passage quoted by Forest Lookouts says the old tower had decayed to the point where it was no longer safe for useSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 StaffedMrs. Elsie Ralph (Forest Lookouts) or Mrs. James Ralph (firelookout.com) was the lookoutSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1944 RemovedOld tower condemned and razed, per the Forest Lookouts quote; the history flags the date as questionable. A 1947 item says it toppled in 1946Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1948 Replaced by a new structure83-foot treated timber L-4 tower completedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1950 FireLightning fire a quarter mile east of Spout Springs, spotted and put out by lookout Dean McKenzieSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1950 and 1968
  9. 1968 StaffedBob Faust listed as a lookoutSource: firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1968 and 1990
  11. 1990 DestroyedA tree fell across the guy wires and destroyed the towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 1990 Last staffedStaffed through 1990Source: firetower.org
  13. No record between 1990 and 2011
  14. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered August 21, 2011 on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  15. 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.

Spout Springs Mountain, about 15 miles north-northwest of Elgin in Union County, was developed as a lookout in the 1920s.1,2,3 Early on, the site had a pole platform, 30 feet tall, and a tent camp.3 Sources disagree on when the 50-foot L-4 tower arrived. The register and firelookout.com both date it to 1935.1,2 Forest Lookouts quotes an August 1926 account in which a crew found a 50-foot tower already framed and had it raised in less than two hours.3

A 1943 inspection, as quoted by Forest Lookouts, found the old tower too decayed to use safely.3 That same year, Mrs. Elsie Ralph, the lookout, packed out on a cow because her horses had gone and she had no car.3 Firelookout.com gives her name as Mrs. James Ralph and lists Bob Faust as a lookout in 1968.2

In July 1950 a lightning strike started the season's first wildfire on the Walla Walla district.3 Lookout Dean McKenzie found the blaze about a quarter mile east of the lookout site and put it out.3

Replacement was already being planned in 1946.3 A June item said a wooden tower at Spout Springs was to be replaced that summer.3 A February 1947 item described an 83-foot structure with a 14-by-14 lookout house.3 The history also quotes a 1944 note that the old tower was condemned and razed, with a caution that the date is questionable.3 A September 1947 item said the old tower had toppled the year before.3 The new 83-foot treated timber tower was completed in 1948.3,1

The lookout was staffed through 1990.1 That year a falling tree landed across the guy wires, and the tower was destroyed.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.4

No source we found describes what remains at the summit, or whether the public may visit it. A Forest Service page titled Spout Springs describes a sno-park on Oregon 204, roughly three and a half miles east of Tollgate, with snowmobiling and parking.5 Permits are required from November 1 to April 15.5 The page does not describe the lookout.5

  1. Spout Springs Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/spout-springs-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Spout Springs Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/spoutsprings.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Spout Springs, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/spout-springs.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Spout Springs, Umatilla National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/umatilla/recreation/spout-springs (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Spout Springs Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1925
1925 (1925)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, 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

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