FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Strawberry Mountain Lookout Site

Grant County, OR summit lookout on Strawberry Mountain: phone line 1913, sheet-steel house 1916, D-6 cabin 1921, L-4 cab 1941; removed or destroyed in 1966.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the cab was removed in 1966; firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year; no source describes what remains on the summit

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 (1941), replacing a D-6 cupola cabin (1921)The designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1916
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,038 ft (2,755 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Malheur National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.31229, −118.71659
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-strawberry-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 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. 1913 EventTelephone line installed to the summit; a fire on upper Beech Creek was first reported from the lookoutSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1914 EventFire finder installed at the lookout stationSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1916 BuiltLookout house of sheet steel built September 1916 for a total cost of $663; a man kept there in fire seasonSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1917 DestroyedHouse destroyed by wind the following springSources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1921 BuiltD-6 cupola lookout house constructed; the Forest Lookouts page quotes a 1940 account saying it replaced the sheet-steel house in September 1921Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1921 and 1939
  7. 1939 AlteredLookout received a special sending and receiving radioSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1941 BuiltL-4 cab built in 1941, replacing the D-6 cupola cabin; material packed to the summit in August 1941Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1941 and 1966
  10. 1966 RemovedRegister says the cab was removed in 1966; firelookout.com says it was destroyed that yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. No record between 1966 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 16, 2011 as US 1093, OR 450; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  13. 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.

The Strawberry Mountain lookout stood on Strawberry Mountain in Grant County, Oregon, on the Malheur National Forest.1 It sat about 11 miles southeast of John Day.2

A phone line was run to the summit in 1913, and a fire finder followed in 1914.2 The first lookout house was built of sheet steel in September 1916 for $663.3 A 1940 account says the wind destroyed it the following spring.3 Some 1916 newspaper reports, however, call the structure a steel tower, so the sources do not agree on its form.3 A D-6 cupola cabin came in 1921, and an L-4 cab replaced it in 1941.1,2,3

A 1916 newspaper report said a man was kept at the lookout during fire season, and that the station was connected by telephone to the ranger stations.3 A 1913 fire on upper Beech Creek was first reported from the lookout, and in 1916 the lookout spotted smoke from a brush fire near John Day.3 The Forest Lookouts page names lookouts from 1916 through 1939, and it says one of them received a special radio in 1939.3

The Register says the cabin was removed in 1966. Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2

A 1946 survey note says a federal survey station sat at the center of the Forest Service lookout house.3 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, or whether the site is open to visitors.1,2

  1. Strawberry Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/strawberry-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Strawberry Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/strawberrymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Strawberry Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/strawberry-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Strawberry Mountain 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, 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.