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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Vinegar Hill Lookout Site

Malheur NF, Grant County OR: 1916 cupola cabin, 1941 L-4 cab, cab removed 1971 per two sites; a survey mark is reported destroyed; no current site account found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed in 1971 per two sources; the survey mark is reported destroyed; no source describes what remains of the lookout

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 cab1916 cupola cabin, replaced by an L-4 cab; the 1971 notice describes a 14-foot-square ground cabin without a towerThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1916
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,131 ft (2,478 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.71380, −118.56166
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-vinegar-hill

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 3.6 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. 1911 StaffedA lookout was maintained on Vinegar Hill that season, connected by telephone to the central officeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1916 BuiltCupola cabin (lookout house) built on the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1916 and 1933
  4. 1933 StaffedCharles Arrington reported as the ranger at the lookout for summer 1933Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1941 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab replaced the cupola; a 1971 notice gives 1942 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1941 and 1969
  7. 1969 EventBuilding in use until 1969 per the 1971 call for bids; aerial observation replaced the manned stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1971 RemovedL-4 cab removed in 1971 per the Former Fire Lookout Sites entry and Firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1971 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 18, 2011 as US 1096Source: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Vinegar Hill Lookout stood in the Malheur National Forest in Grant County, Oregon, about 24 miles northeast of John Day, at 8,131 feet.1,2

The Forest Lookouts page says a lookout was maintained on the hill in 1911, connected by telephone to the central office.3 A cupola cabin went up on the summit in 1916.1,2,3 A U.S. Geological Survey station on the summit was destroyed when that house went up.3

In 1941 an L-4 cab replaced the cupola.1,2,3 The Forest Lookouts page gives that date too, but a 1971 notice it quotes says the building was built in 1942 and used until 1969.3

The Baker Democrat Herald reported in July 1933 that Charles Arrington would work as the ranger at the lookout that summer.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites entry and Firelookout.com both say the L-4 cab was removed in 1971.1,2 In September 1971 the Malheur National Forest sought bids on five structures in the Bates-Prairie City area.3 It described this one as 14 feet square and set on the ground rather than on a tower, and said aerial observation had replaced the manned fire-prevention station.3

A 1936 station description, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, says the survey station sits at the center of the lookout house.3 The National Geodetic Survey listing for that station carries the code for a surface mark reported destroyed.4

No source we read describes what remains of the lookout itself, or whether the summit is open to visitors.

  1. Vinegar Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/vinegar-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Vinegar Hill Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/vinegarhill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Vinegar Hill, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/vinegar-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Vinegar Hill LOH (QC0925), National Geodetic Survey, https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=QC0925 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Vinegar Hill Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Site in 1975
Site in 1975 (1975)Photo: 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, 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

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