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Fire lookout · Baker County, Oregon

Table Rock Lookout

Baker County L-4 lookout on the Wallowa-Whitman NF, first manned 1939; cab dated 1949 by NHLR (1937 by others), staffed summers, and still standing after the 2016 Rail Fire.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Seasonal staffed lookout. The field guide says the staffer is used to visitors and asks that visits be between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. No closure or permission requirement appears in these sources; the 2026 season was not confirmed.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Lookout road is 0.8 miles to drive. Alternatively walk about half a mile from the Table Rock South Trailhead, leaving the road to climb cross-country after the first patch of forest.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2018)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cab14 x 14 ft L-4 ground cab with catwalk (present cab dated 1949 by NHLR; a 2018 report says 1937)The designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,756 ft (2,364 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Unity Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Baker County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.33386, −118.31642
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-table-rock-2

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1920 BuiltFirst structure: a cupola house, dated only to the 1920s (NHLR says early 1920s)Sources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1920 and 1937
  3. 1937 Replaced by a new structureAn L-4 14 x 14 ft cab with catwalk replaced the cupola; the Forest Lookouts history dates the L-4 cabin to 1936Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 First staffedRoy Weikal and his wife stationed as a new lookout-fireman station, the first season the point was mannedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1949 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  6. 1949 Replaced by a new structureNew L-4 completed; NHLR and the Forest Lookouts history give 1949, while a 2018 visit report calls the cab 1937Sources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
  7. 1962 StaffedLou Maher went into the service and Gary Squires replaced him; firelookout.com lists Lew Maker for 1962Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1962 and 1997
  9. 1997 EventTen solar panels stolen from the lookout in June; Forest Service offered a reward of up to $1,000Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register June 1, 1998Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2002 FireLookout evacuated in July because of the extreme behavior of a fire the observer had reported earlierSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 2016 FireRail Fire reached the summit; the lookout was wrapped in protective foil and survived. Accounts differ on which outbuildings burnedSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net, oregonhikers.org
  13. 2018 StaffedVisit on May 27, 2018 found the lookout staffed for the summerSource: cherylhill.net
  14. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Table Rock Lookout sits at the southern tip of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in Baker County, Oregon, roughly 12 miles southwest of Unity.1,2 Its first structure was a cupola from the early 1920s.1 An L-4 cab replaced it in 1937 by most accounts, though one lookout history dates the cabin to 1936.1,2,3

The lookout was first manned in 1939.3 A newspaper notice from that year called it a new lookout-fireman station, with Roy Weikal and his wife stationed there in the first season the point was staffed.3 The register says a new L-4 was built in 1949, and a lookout history also records the new house as completed that year.1,3 A 2018 visit report, though, calls the cab 1937, so the dates conflict.4

In 1962 a notice reported that Lou Maher had gone into the service and that Gary Squires had replaced him at Table Rock.3 In June 1997 thieves took 10 solar panels from the lookout, and the Forest Service offered up to $1,000 for their recovery.3 A July 2002 entry records that the lookout was evacuated when a fire the observer had reported earlier became extremely active.3

The 2016 Rail Fire came up to the summit, and crews wrapped the lookout in protective foil to save it.4,3 Accounts differ on which outbuildings burned. One says an old outhouse was lost, and another says an old wooden garage and the former outhouse were reduced to ashes.3,5

The site joined the National Historic Lookout Register on June 1, 1998, and the register still describes the lookout as in active service.1 A 2018 visit found it staffed for the summer.4 The Oregon Hikers field guide says it is staffed from late June or early July until the first snows.5

Visitors can drive the 0.8-mile road or walk about half a mile from the Table Rock South Trailhead.5 The field guide notes that the staffer is used to receiving curious guests, but asks visitors to come between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.5

  1. Table Rock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/table-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Table Rock Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/tablerock105.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Table Rock - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/table-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Table Rock - Every Lookout in Oregon, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2018/06/07/table-rock/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Table Rock Fire Lookout, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Table_Rock_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Table Rock Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Table Rock in 1942
Table Rock in 1942 (1942)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Table Rock in 2000
Table Rock in 2000 (2000)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1949
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1920
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1937

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: what it is built of, design, staffing, photos, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

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