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Fire lookout · Wallowa County, Oregon

Tope Creek Lookout

1936 timber tower 15 miles north of Enterprise, Oregon; unstaffed since the early 1970s, privately owned, NHLR-listed 1997. Sources disagree on builder, cab size and sale year.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned by Brian Wizard; NHLR and firelookout.com both describe it as private property

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Private property per NHLR and firelookout.com; access is at the owner's discretion
Staffing
Not staffed (as of early 1970s)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower103-foot timber tower; cab size disputed (8 by 8 ft L-6 per NHLR, 7 by 7 ft per firelookout.com)The design: L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1936
Height
103 ft (31.4 m)
Elevation
4,719 ft (1,438 m)
Agency
Private (owner Brian Wizard)
Land
Unknown
Location
Wallowa County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.65248, −117.40375
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tope-creek

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 3.3 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. 1936 BuiltBuilt 1936. NHLR and cherylhill.net credit the Forest Service; the state record names the CCC as builderSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  2. No record between 1936 and 1970
  3. 1970 Last staffedLatest named staff entry is 1970; NHLR says staffed until the early 1970s, then declared surplusSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1978 EventSold at a state auction, per firelookout.com. Conflicts with the 1984 ODF auction date given by cherylhill.netSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1984 EventOregon Department of Forestry auctioned the land and tower to a private buyer, per cherylhill.netSource: cherylhill.net
  6. 1991 EventBrian Wizard bought the property; living quarters and cabin were heavily vandalizedSource: cherylhill.net
  7. 1992 AlteredState record gives an approximate second date of c.1992 and does not say what changedSource: heritagedata.prd.state.or.us
  8. 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 19, 1997Source: nhlr.org
  9. 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.

The Tope Creek Lookout sits about 15 miles north of Enterprise in Wallowa County, Oregon.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register credits the U.S. Forest Service with building it in 1936, and says the tower was later passed to the Oregon Department of Forestry.1 The state's historic site record gives the same c.1936 date but names the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as builder, so the sources do not agree on who put it up.1,3,4

The tower is a timber structure about 103 feet tall.1,4 The sources also disagree about the cab. The Register gives an 8-by-8-foot L-6 cab, while firelookout.com gives 7 by 7 feet.1,2

The Register dates the end of staffing to the early 1970s and says the tower was then declared surplus.1 A staff list on firelookout.com covers 1954 through 1970, but it presents only the personnel the site knows of, so it may not be a full roster.2 The same site places a ground house with living quarters in the 1936 build, but a 2022 post on cherylhill.net quotes the owner dating the living quarters to the 1960s.2,3

Sale details also differ. According to firelookout.com, a state auction in 1978 sold off the land and tower.2 The 2022 post gives 1984 for an Oregon Department of Forestry auction, and says Brian Wizard bought the property in 1991 and found the living quarters and cabin heavily vandalized.3

The Register lists Wizard as owner, says he restored the tower, and records its registration on May 19, 1997.1 The state record calls the site significantly altered and gives an approximate second date of around 1992 without saying what that date marks.4 Both the Register and firelookout.com describe the property as private, and the sources do not mention public access or any rental.1,2 A 2022 account describes a tour of the site during a Forest Fire Lookout Association conference.3 Because the tower is private property, anyone who wants to see it should ask the owner first and should not climb it without permission.

  1. Tope Creek Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/tope-creek-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tope Creek Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/topecreek.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Tope Creek – Every Lookout in Oregon, cherylhill.net, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2022/09/22/tope-creek/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon Historic Site Record: Tope Creek Lookout, Oregon Historic Preservation Office, https://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_printRecord&resultDisplay=654309 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Tope Creek Lookout - 2008
Tope Creek Lookout - 2008 (2008)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tope Creek L.O.
Tope Creek L.OPhoto: the Dave Bula collection and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Tope Creek in 1999
Tope Creek in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Dave Bula collection and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Tope Creek in 2022
Tope Creek in 2022 (2022)Photo: the Dave Bula collection 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: height, dates, 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. 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
  5. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: register numbers, 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.