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Fire lookout · Klamath County, Oregon

Aspen Butte Lookout Site

Klamath County co-op site: a rag camp or compass lookout c.1910, a D-6 cupola cabin in the 1920s, gone by the 1930s (sources differ on the year).

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cupola gone by the 1930s per FFLOS, or 1928 per firelookout.com; the Klamath County blog says it may have moved to Chase Mountain; no source describes 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 cabD-6 cupola cabin (1920s) on a site first used c.1910 as a rag camp or compass lookoutThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1920
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,208 ft (2,502 m)
Agency
Klamath Forest Protective Association co-op, Crater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.31538, −122.08753
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-aspen-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1910 EventRag camp on the site (FFLOS); camp (firelookout.com); compass lookout c.1910 (Klamath County blog)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, klamathlookouts.blogspot.com
  2. 1910 First staffed1910 association report places a patrolman at his lookout on Aspen Mountain when fires started (Oregon Lookouts page reprint); the report may not name this summitSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1916 StaffedFoster 1916 report: station maintained as a cooperative station with the Klamath Patrol AssociationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1917 StaffedNewspaper item names E.P. Miller as a lookout in the forestry service at Mt. AspenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1920 BuiltD-6 cupola constructed; FFLOS gives the 1920's, firelookout.com 1920s (decade only, 1920 is a placeholder)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, klamathlookouts.blogspot.com
  6. 1928 Removedfirelookout.com: 'Gone 1928'Source: firelookout.com
  7. 1930 MovedBelieved (not confirmed) that the cupola was moved to Chase Mountain for living quarters in the early 1930s; year is approximateSource: klamathlookouts.blogspot.com
  8. 1930 RemovedFFLOS: gone sometime in the 1930's (no exact year given)Source: firetower.org
  9. 1933 Condition assessmentCoast and Geodetic Survey station recovered; bronze tablet in bedrock at the highest point, marks in good condition; directions givenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1933 and 2019
  11. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites register November 15, 2019 (US 1819, OR 542)Source: firetower.org
  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.

Aspen Butte is a former lookout site in Klamath County, Oregon, on the Crater National Forest, administered with the Klamath Forest Protective Association co-op.1,2

The register lists a rag camp on the site in 1910, while the Klamath County lookouts blog describes a compass lookout from about the same time.1,3 In the 1920s a D-6 cupola cabin was built here.1,4 The blog credits the Crater National Forest with building the D-6 cupola.3

Early staffing is documented in a few items. The Oregon Lookouts page reprints a 1910 report by the secretary of the Klamath and Lake Counties Forest Fire Association. It describes a patrolman who, that afternoon, spotted new fires from his post on Aspen Mountain.2 The item may refer to a different Aspen summit, since a 1915 item on the page mentions Aspen Lake mountain.2 A 1916 report by Harold D. Foster treats the station as worth keeping up with help from the Klamath Patrol Association, and an August 1917 newspaper item names E.P. Miller as a forest-service lookout on Mt. Aspen.2 The blog says the Klamath Forest Protective Association later handled the staffing.3

The sources disagree on when the cupola went. The register puts its removal sometime in the 1930s, while firelookout.com gives 1928.1,4 The blog says the cupola may have been moved to Chase Mountain for living quarters in the early 1930s, though it says only that this is believed.3

No source describes what remains on the site today.1,4,2,3 The most recent physical record in these sources is a 1933 Coast and Geodetic Survey recovery. It found the station as described, with a bronze tablet set in bedrock at the highest point and its marks in good condition.2 The directions from that visit are more than 90 years old, and the sources do not say whether the site is open to visitors now.2

  1. Aspen Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/aspen-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Aspen Butte - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/aspen-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Klamath County Fire Lookouts, klamathlookouts.blogspot.com, https://klamathlookouts.blogspot.com/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Aspen Butte Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/aspenbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Aspen Butte Lookout site 2006
Aspen Butte Lookout site 2006 (2006)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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: ownership, 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

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