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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Oregon Butte Lookout

Hike-in lookout in the Gospel Hump Wilderness: a 1929 cupola cabin replaced by an R-6 cab in 1963. Sources differ on whether it is staffed every season or in summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Hike-in only through the Gospel Hump Wilderness; about five miles each way

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About five miles each way; Oregon Butte Lake can be visited on the same hike (Forest Service)
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 flat-top cab on a seven-foot base (1963)The designs: R-6, Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
7 ft (2.1 m)
Elevation
8,373 ft (2,552 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Nez Perce National Forest (Red River Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.52136, −115.66853
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-oregon-butte

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 3.7 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. 1920 EventSite began as a tent camp in the early 1920sSources: nhlr.org, facebook.com
  2. 1929 BuiltLog cupola cabin, the first permanent fire lookout (other sources say shake or gable-roofed cabin with cupola)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1929 and 1946
  4. 1946 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description: standard 12- by 14-foot Forest Service lookout house on a high pinnacled butteSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1946 and 1963
  6. 1963 Replaced by a new structureEarlier cabin replaced by an R-6 flat-top cab on a seven-foot base (concrete per NHLR and firelookout.com; cinder-block storage per Forest Lookouts Idaho)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1963 and 1997
  8. 1997 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered August 25, 1997 per NHLR; Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1997Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  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.

Oregon Butte Lookout sits on a high, pinnacled butte in the Gospel Hump Wilderness, in the Nez Perce National Forest of Idaho County.1,2 The name comes from the unobstructed view of Oregon's Wallowa Mountains from the summit.3 Reaching the lookout takes a hike of about five miles each way.3,1

The site started as a tent camp in the early 1920s. In 1929 a cupola cabin became the first permanent lookout.3,1 Sources differ on how that cabin was built. The Register and the Forest Service describe it as log, firelookout.com as a shake cabin, and a local history as gable-roofed. All of them mention a cupola.1,3,4,2

The cabin was replaced in 1963 by an R-6 flat-top cab set on a seven-foot base.1,4,3 Sources disagree on what that base is. The National Historic Lookout Register and firelookout.com say concrete, while a local history page describes a cinder-block enclosed storage area.1,4,2 A 1946 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description calls the lookout house of that time a standard 12-by-14-foot Forest Service building.2

Staffing is reported in different ways. The Register says the lookout is staffed every season, and an undated Forest Service post says the 1963 cab remains staffed to this day.1,3 firelookout.com says it is staffed in the summer.4 It was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on August 25, 1997.1,5

Today the lookout is reached on foot, and Idaho lookout records tag it as "Hike-In Staffed."5 The Forest Service notes that Oregon Butte Lake can be visited on the same hike.3

  1. Oregon Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/oregon-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Oregon Butte, Forest Lookouts Idaho, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/oregon-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Oregon Butte: Looking in, Looking Out!, U.S. Forest Service, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests (Facebook), https://www.facebook.com/NPClwNFs/posts/oregon-butte-looking-in-looking-outthe-oregon-butte-lookout-began-like-many-fore/760847046083722/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/oregonbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/oregon-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Oregon Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Oregon Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Oregon Butte in 1963
Oregon Butte in 1963 (1963)Photo: the Nez Perce NF and the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Oregon Butte in 1963
Oregon Butte in 1963 (1963)Photo: the Nez Perce NF and the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Oregon Butte in 1999
Oregon Butte in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Nez Perce NF and the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Oregon Butte Lookout
Oregon Butte LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, design, 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. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: staffing, photos, links idahofirelookouts.com · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, status/built/destroyed year parsed from each entry's short excerpt). Thumbnail photos mirrored with credit per the project's photo policy. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, 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

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