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Fire lookout · Union County, Oregon

Anthony Butte Lookout Site

Wallowa-Whitman lookout near La Grande: a 30-foot pole L-4 tower dated 1937 (1933 reports differ), cupola trailer 1975, gone by 1977.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1977 per the register and firelookout.com

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
Cab on a tower30-foot pole L-4 tower; AWS cabin added 1942The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1937
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,805 ft (2,074 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wallowa-Whitman National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Union County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.04699, −118.22814
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-anthony-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 3.7 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. 1933 EventBaker Democrat-Herald (Sept 13, 1933) reported a 14x14 lookout house on a 35-foot tower; Record-Courier (Sept 21, 1933) said 30 feet. Sources do not say whether this is the 1937 tower.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 StaffedDean Bidwell to have charge of the station that summer (Baker Democrat Herald, July 21, 1933)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date a 30-foot pole L-4 tower to 1937Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1940 StaffedNeil Taylor named as lookout, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1942 AlteredAWS cabin addedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1942 StaffedMaurice Larive named as lookout, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1942 and 1975
  8. 1975 AlteredCupola trailer set up on the siteSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. 1977 RemovedGone by 1977 per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1977 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: July 26, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register says a 30-foot pole L-4 tower was built on Anthony Butte in 1937.1 Firelookout.com gives the same height and date.2 The butte sits in Union County, about 20 miles south-southwest of La Grande, within the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.2

Two local papers from September 1933 describe a 14-by-14-foot lookout house being built on the butte.3 The Baker Democrat-Herald put the tower at 35 feet, and the Record-Courier at 30.3 The sources do not agree on the date, and none says whether the 1933 tower is the one the 1937 date describes.1,3,2

In July 1933 a Baker paper said Dean Bidwell would be running the station that summer.3 Firelookout.com names Neil Taylor for 1940 and Maurice Larive for 1942.2

An AWS cabin was added in 1942 and a cupola trailer was set up in 1975.1,2 Both the register and firelookout.com say the lookout was gone by 1977.1,2 Rex's page marks the site only as "Removed."3

The register includes a photograph captioned as the Anthony Butte site in 2018, credited to Rex Kamstra, but the caption does not say what it shows.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, is on the summit today, or how to reach it.1,3,2

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

Photos

Anthony Butte Lookout 1942
Anthony Butte Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Anthony Butte Lookout 1942
Anthony Butte Lookout 1942 (1942)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Anthony Butte Lookout site 2018
Anthony Butte Lookout site 2018 (2018)Photo: Rex Kamstra, 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, what it is built of, 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, 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.