The Malheur National Forest has released a draft Facility Master Plan and a draft Recreation Facility Master Plan for the various buildings and facilities they are responsible for. Here is what they have to say about the lookouts: There are…
The difficulty of renting fire lookouts
A few weeks ago OregonLive posted this article: Fire lookouts are hot destinations, but face an uncertain future in the Pacific Northwest. (Today it appeared on the front page of the Oregonian.) Some snippets: “Booking a night in a fire…
Rebel Rock
Type: L-4 cab Status: Abandoned Elevation: 5,060 feet Visited: July 15, 2017 There are two abandoned lookouts in the Three Sisters Wilderness. I visited Olallie Mountain in 2014. I’ve been wanting to get to Rebel Rock for awhile and this summer…
Soda Mountain
Type: 10′ wooden tower with ODF cab Status: Staffed Elevation: 6,091 feet Visited: July 2, 2017 During our Fourth of July weekend in southern Oregon we visited the Soda Mountain Lookout in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (it’s also surrounded…
Another trip to Fivemile Butte
It’s getting harder and harder to snag reservations for fire lookouts, but last August I was lucky enough to get two nights at Fivemile Butte for the end of February. Unlike our March 2015 visit when the ground was bare, we…
Richard Miller’s Lookout Models
A few months ago I had the privilege of talking to Richard Miller on the phone. He used to build scale model replicas of Oregon fire lookouts and I had heard of him while researching my book. I even come…
Squaw Peak Lookout’s New Roof
When I was researching my book I discovered that the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest was readying the Squaw Peak lookout to be a rental. The lookout even had a page on recreation.gov. The project hit some kind of unspecified snag,…
Table Rock Lookout Saved From Rail Fire
Yesterday the Baker City Herald reported that the Table Rock Lookout was saved from being burned in the Rail Fire. On their Facebook page, the Malheur National Forest had this to say about it: Rail Fire Update (Monday, August…
Black Butte
Type: D-6 cupola (1923) and 35′ tower (1995) Status: Cupola is abandoned; Tower is staffed Elevation: 6,436 feet Visited: July 16, 2016 After attending the Sand Mountain anniversary celebration at the Fish Lake Historic Site, I decided to go for a…
Return to Gold Butte
Type: L-4 ground cabin Status: Summer rental Elevation: 4,618 feet Visited: July 5-7, 2016 Greg and I first stayed at Gold Butte almost three years ago, in September 2013. The weather was bad and we had almost no views, so…