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Fire lookout · Jackson County, Oregon

Anderson Butte Lookout Site

Jackson County, OR lookout on Anderson Butte; built 1933 or 1935 (sources differ), removed 1965; a 2015 visit found only foundation blocks and a stair pad. Elevation 5,195 ft per the register, 6,193 ft per a survey description on the Forest Lookouts page.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1965; an April 2015 visit found only the foundation blocks and stair pad

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. An April 2015 visit found the access road blocked by dirt berms that stop full-size vehicles, about a mile's walk from the blocked entrance. The sources do not say what the access rules are now.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About a mile's walk from the blocked road entrance, per the 2015 visit. No tower remains to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30' L-4 tower per the register and firelookout.com; a 1933 Medford newspaper describes a house atop a thirty-foot towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,195 ft (1,583 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Rogue River National Forest); Southwest Oregon FPA from 1948 per the Forest Lookouts page
Land
Federal land
Location
Jackson County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.20203, −122.89700
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-anderson-butte

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.3 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. 1931 StaffedJohn Cantrall had been employed as lookout man at Anderson Butte for some time by October 11, 1931 (earliest staffing named in the sources read)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 BuiltLookout house built atop a 30-foot tower; work began July 31, 1933 and it was completed September 12, 1933 per the Medford Mail TribuneSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date the 30-foot L-4 tower to 1935 (conflicts with the 1933 newspaper)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1935 StaffedBob Lindsay and family moved to the lookout June 16, 1935 (article dated June 26, 1935)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1936 StaffedHugh Shurtleff fulfilling the lookout position (article dated August 13, 1936)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1938 StaffedHugh Shurtleff at the Anderson Butte lookout (article dated June 10, 1938)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1941 StaffedLookout staffed for 95 daysSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1948 EventRogue River National Forest transferred the lookout and its duties to the Southwest Oregon FPASource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1953 StaffedState forestry district placed a lookout on the butte (July 7, 1953 article)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1961 StaffedMrs. Ida Mae Stone placed on the butteSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1965 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyed; Forest Lookouts: 1965 the lookout removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1965 and 2010
  13. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 17, 2010Source: firetower.org
  14. 2015 EventSite visit (April 20, 2015) found only foundation blocks and a stair pad; access road blocked by dirt bermsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  15. 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.

Anderson Butte lies in the Rogue River National Forest, about nine miles west of Ashland, in Jackson County, Oregon.1,2 The register gives its elevation as 5,195 feet, but a Coast and Geodetic Survey description quoted on the Forest Lookouts page gives 6,193 feet.1,3

Sources disagree on the year the tower went up. Medford newspapers describe a house on a 30-foot tower: work began on July 31, 1933, and the lookout was completed on September 12, 1933.3 Before that, a secondary lookout had been set up on the butte each summer for two years.3 The register and firelookout.com both date the L-4 tower to 1935.1,2

The earliest lookout named in the papers is John Cantrall, who had been employed there as lookout man for some time by October 1931.3 Bob Lindsay and his family moved into the lookout in June 1935, and Hugh Shurtleff held the post in 1936 and again in 1938.3 The lookout was staffed for 95 days in 1941.3 In 1948 control of the lookout passed from the Rogue River National Forest to the Southwest Oregon FPA.3 In 1953 the state forestry district placed a lookout on the butte, and in 1961 Mrs. Ida Mae Stone was placed there.3

The Forest Lookouts page records the lookout as removed in 1965.3 The register says the tower was removed that year, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,2

In April 2015 a visitor reported that the tower's foundation blocks and a stair pad were all that remained.3 The road's entrance is blocked by dirt berms that full-size vehicles cannot get past. The site is about a mile's walk from there. The sources do not say whether visitors may go up the road today.3

  1. Anderson Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/anderson-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Anderson Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/andersonbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Anderson Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/anderson-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Anderson Butte Lookout 1959
Anderson Butte Lookout 1959 (1959)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Anderson Butte Lookout shed 1959
Anderson Butte Lookout shed 1959 (1959)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Anderson Butte Lookout 1935 - 1965
Anderson Butte Lookout 1935 - 1965 (1935)Photo: Ron Johnson collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Anderson Butte Lookout site 2015
Anderson Butte Lookout site 2015 (2015)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via 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: height, 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, height, status, 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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