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Fire lookout · Multnomah County, Oregon

Walker Peak Lookout Site

Mount Hood National Forest lookout site near Sandy, Oregon: an L-5 cab built in 1934 (a 1929 house per the Rex page) half a mile east of the summit, removed in 1967.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1967 per the register and the Rex page; firelookout.com says destroyed that year. No source describes standing remains.

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 cabL-5 cab built about half a mile east of the summitThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,900 ft (579 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Mount Hood National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Multnomah County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.47410, −122.12338 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-walker-peak

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 4.0 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. 1929 BuiltRex page: a lookout house constructed; does not match the register's 1934 cab dateSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltL-5 cab constructed about half a mile east of the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1938 StaffedRichard Newman appointed emergency lookout for the Walker Prairie station for the fire season (Sandy Post item dated July 27, 1938, quoted on the Rex page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1946 EventListed as an emergency lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1957 Last staffedEntry quoting the Zigzag District's 1957 historical report: manned 'probably for the last year'Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1959 EventJuly 18, 1959 Oregonian item: city Water Bureau timber sale to clear about 120 acres for a firebreak access road past the station; January 28, 1959 Oregonian item calls the station nearly inaccessibleSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1967 RemovedCab removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1967 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 21, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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.

Walker Peak sits in Multnomah County, on the Mount Hood National Forest about eight miles northeast of Sandy.1,2 The sources give two different dates for the first lookout building.1,3,2 The Rex page dates a lookout house to 1929.3 The register and firelookout.com describe an L-5 cab put up in 1934, roughly half a mile east of the summit.1,2

In July 1938 a Sandy Post item, quoted on the Rex page, reported that Richard Newman had been appointed emergency lookout for the Walker Prairie station during the fire season.3 The page again lists the lookout among the emergency lookouts in 1946.3 A February 1958 entry quoting the Zigzag District's 1957 historical report said the Walker Prairie lookout "was manned, probably for the last year."3

A January 1959 Oregonian item, quoted on the Rex page, called the Walker Prairie station nearly inaccessible.3 That summer the city Water Bureau's timber sale was set to clear about 120 acres for a firebreak access road running past the station.3 The register and the Rex page both date the lookout's removal to 1967.1,3 firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout today. We also found nothing that says whether the site is open to the public. The register names the U.S. Forest Service as administrator, so check with the Mount Hood National Forest before you visit.1

  1. Walker Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/walker-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Walker Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/walkerpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Walker Peak - Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/walker-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

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 location by 590 m.

    • FFLOS: 45.47410, −122.12338
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 45.47470, −122.13092

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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: 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

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