FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Oregon

Baber Butte Lookout Site

Also known as Baber Mountain (Butte)

Oregon Department of Forestry 40-foot L-4 tower on Baber Mountain, Lincoln County: built 1940, removed 1969 or 1970; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1969 or 1970; sources disagree on the year and on whether it was dismantled or destroyed. No source describes the site today.

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 tower40-foot pole L-4 tower with 14 by 14 cabin; AWS cabin added 1942The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1940
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
1,451 ft (442 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Lincoln County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.62215, −123.78967
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-baber-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 3.8 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. 1939 Event10-acre site bought for the lookout (Lincoln County fire annual report, via Oregon lookouts page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 Built40-foot tower with 14 by 14 cabin on top; CCC crews did road and tower; register calls it a pole L-4 towerSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1940 First staffedEdward Richter took the patrolman job at the new site in July 1940Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 AlteredAWS cabin added (register and firelookout.com); annual report says an 18 by 20 ground cabin was built; sources disagreeSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Keith Bannister took over the post on May 26Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1942 and 1969
  7. 1969 RemovedDismantled, after years of disuse and wind and vandalism damage (Oregon lookouts page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1970 Destroyedfirelookout.com says destroyed 1970Source: firelookout.com
  9. 1970 RemovedRegister says the lookout was removed in 1970Source: firetower.org
  10. No record between 1970 and 2010
  11. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 22, 2010Source: 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 Baber Butte lookout stood on Baber Mountain, seven miles east of Toledo in Lincoln County, Oregon.1,2 The register lists the Oregon Department of Forestry as its administrator.1

A 10-acre plot was bought for the lookout in 1939.3 CCC crews did the road work and built the tower in 1940.3 The 1940 annual report describes a 40-foot tower with a 14-by-14 cabin on top, built of wood on a concrete foundation.3 The register calls it a 40-foot pole L-4 tower and says an AWS cabin was added in 1942.1 The sources disagree about the cabin itself. A June 1942 inspection describes a 14-by-14 Aladdin cabin on the 40-foot tower, but the 1942 annual report says a ground cabin, 18 by 20 feet, was built that year.3

Edward Richter took the patrolman's job at the new site in July 1940.3 A July 1941 paper named Chester Sparks as the patrolman that year and said no fire had yet been reported there.3 A December 1941 paper, reporting local blackouts, said volunteers kept the lookout manned day and night.3 In 1942 a college couple, Mr. and Mrs. Keith Bannister, took over the post.3

Annual reports record repairs and painting from 1955 to 1960.3 The 1960 entry describes fixing the tower door and broken windows.3

The register says the lookout was removed in 1970.1 The firelookout.com page says it was destroyed that year.2 The Oregon lookouts page gives an earlier date: it says the lookout was dismantled in 1969, after several years of disuse, when wind damage and vandalism made repairs too costly.3 The sources do not agree on the year or the method.

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout on the hill today, or whether the site is open to visitors.

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

Photos

Baber Butte Lookout 1959
Baber Butte Lookout 1959 (1959)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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: 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.