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Fire lookout · Umatilla County, Oregon

Tower Mountain Lookout

Umatilla NF lookout in Umatilla County, Oregon; first pole tower 1914, present 92-ft steel tower dated 1929 or 1934 by sources, staffed each summer and still in service.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower92-ft steel Aermotor tower (per FireLookout.com); CCC-built living quarters moved from Lucky Strike LookoutThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Height
92 ft (28.0 m)
Elevation
6,812 ft (2,076 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Umatilla County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.05404, −118.56826
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tower-mountain

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 4.2 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. 1914 BuiltFirst structure, a 60-ft pole tower with a 6x6 cab, per FireLookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1914 and 1929
  3. 1929 BuiltRegister's date for the 92-ft tower built by the Forest Service; FireLookout.com dates its replacement to 1934Source: nhlr.org
  4. 1934 Replaced by a new structureFireLookout.com says the present 92-ft Aermotor tower replaced the first structureSource: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1934 and 1995
  6. 1995 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 5, 1995 as US 142, OR 20Source: nhlr.org
  7. 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.

Tower Mountain Lookout stands in the Umatilla National Forest, about 18 miles east-southeast of Ukiah in Umatilla County, Oregon.1 The site was originally called Lookout Mountain, but it was renamed Tower Mountain in 1925 to avoid mix-ups with a nearby Lookout Mountain.1

A 60-foot pole tower with a 6-by-6-foot cab, dated to 1914, was the site's first structure.1 FireLookout.com says a 92-foot Aermotor steel tower replaced it in 1934.1 The National Historic Lookout Register instead says the Forest Service built the 92-foot tower in 1929.2 The two dates conflict, and I did not find a Forest Service record that settles them.

The register says a CCC-built cabin came to the site from the old Lucky Strike Lookout in the late 1940s.2 FireLookout.com says the original ground cabin burned in the late 1940s and was replaced by the Lucky Strike cabin.1

The register lists the lookout as registered on December 5, 1995, as US 142, OR 20.2 It names the U.S. Forest Service as administrator, with the North Fork John Day Ranger District as cooperator.2

FireLookout.com says the lookout gets staff each summer, but its page gives no date for that.1 The register says the tower remains in service, and one visit report there describes the site as generally in good shape.2 The sources I read do not give public visiting rules, so check with the Forest Service before you go, and do not climb the tower without permission.

  1. Tower Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/toweror.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tower Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/tower-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tower Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fire finder in 2022
Fire finder in 2022 (2022)Photo: Michael Duffy, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tower Mtn. in 2002
Tower Mtn. in 2002 (2002)Photo: 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.

    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1914
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1935

    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, what it is built of, 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: design, height, staffing, 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. 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, 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

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