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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Summit Spring Lookout Site

Union County cab described as built in the 1930s; a 1933 newspaper item names a Summit Springs station completed in 1932; now gone per FFLOS and firelookout.com.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab now gone per FFLOS and firelookout.com; one Oregon lookouts list marks it removed.

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 cabD-5 cab, 13 by 13 feetThe design: D-5 (4-AR)
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,700 ft (2,042 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.28670, −117.68544
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-summit-spring

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 4.1 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. 1932 BuiltNewspaper item of January 7, 1933 lists a fire lookout station at Summit Springs among 1932 projects; the item does not name the cabSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 EventPanorama photos taken at Summit Springs (September 1935 entry)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 2011
  4. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS: September 29, 2011Source: firetower.org
  5. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Summit Spring lookout stood in Union County, about 11 miles east of Union, at 6,700 feet on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administered it.1

Both sources describe a 13-by-13-foot D-5 cab built in the 1930s.1,2 An item in the La Grande Evening Observer, dated January 7, 1933 and quoted on an Oregon lookouts website, names a fire lookout station at Summit Springs among projects completed in 1932.3 None of the sources says outright that this station is the same cab, though the dates fit. A September 1935 entry on the same list records that panorama photos were taken at Summit Springs.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register added the site on September 29, 2011.1

The register and FireLookout.com both say the cab is now gone.1,2 A third list, on an Oregon lookouts website, marks the lookout as removed.3

None of the cited sources describes what, if anything, remains at the site now. Check with the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest before you visit.

  1. Summit Spring Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/summit-spring-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Summit Spring Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/summitspring.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Summit Springs - FOREST LOOKOUTS, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/summit-springs.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Summit Spring Lookout 1942
Summit Spring Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Summit Spring Lookout site 2009
Summit Spring Lookout site 2009 (2009)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via 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. 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.