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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Bald Butte Lookout (Fremont NF)

Also known as Bald Butte Lookout, Bald (Ingram) Butte

1931 L-4 ground cab on the Fremont National Forest, vandalized by the 1990s then remodeled into a Recreation.gov rental.

Visit & stay

You can rent this lookout for overnight stays through recreation.gov.

Season
sage basins, scenic vistas and wild places where visitors can still find solitude

Overview Bald Butte Lookout is perched atop the windy summit of Bald Butte in the Fremont-Winema National Forest in south-central Oregon. It is surrounded by forested hillsides and expansive views. The lookout was built in 1931 and served as a Forest Service fire detection site for over 50 years. It was constructed from an Aladdin L4 ground-mounted lookout kit in which all of the pieces were pre-cut in six-foot lengths or less so the entire kit could be packed by horses into the remote site. The total cost of the structure at the time was $668.49 and only took a few days to assemble. At one time, hundreds of these types of lookouts were in service throughout the Pacific Northwest. Today only two such structures remain in Oregon, providing a unique lodging experience for guests seeking recreation and relaxation. The lookout offers basic amenities, though for guests to enjoy their experience completely, they must bring several of their own supplies. Recreation Hiking, birding, stargazing and wildlife viewing are popular activities. Bald Butte Trail is a quiet all-season trail that offers a variety of terrain and wildlife viewing opportunities. Hikers traverse large open meadows filled with summer wildflowers, heavily wooded forests and ridgetop scrambles along Oak Ridge Trail and Surveyor's Ridge Trail, overlooking the Hood River Valley. Trails in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness are also nearby. At night the lookout provides an ideal setting for stargazing, as constellations and planets put on a dazzling display. Facilities The 14' x 14' lookout is furnished with two cots, a table, bench and storage cabinets. It is also equipped with a propane heater, cook stove, and lights. An outdoor picnic table and an accessible vault toilet are also on-site. There is no water on-site, so guests must bring sufficient supplies for drinking, cooking and washing. Guests must also provide their own sleeping bags, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, cooking gear, first aid kit, toilet paper, ice cooler and garbage bags. Although lighting is available, it is recommended that guests bring an additional light source in case of emergencies. Natural Features Fremont National Forest is known for its towering snow-capped peaks, volcanic landscapes, wide-open sage basins, scenic vistas and wild places where visitors can still find solitude. Nearby Gearhart Wilderness offers 22,823 acres of scenic views and primitive recreational opportunities. Throughout the remote area, streams rush through narrow meadows and Blue Lake lies nestled beneath a canopy of mixed-conifer forests. Rock formations cap most of the high elevation ridge tops.

Book on recreation.gov

Rental details from recreation.gov, checked 12 Oct 2026. Rules, fees and seasons change, so confirm on the booking page before you go. Data source: ridb.recreation.gov

Access

Open to the public. Available to rent via Recreation.gov; combination lock, code from Paisley Ranger District.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Reached via Forest Road from the Paisley District Office; Bald Butte Trail nearby.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,536 ft (2,297 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.61431, −120.78969
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 12 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bald-butte-fremont-nf

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 3.5 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 BuiltBuilt as an L-4 ground cab.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1990
  3. 1990 EventSuffered vandalism into the 1990s before being remodeled.Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1990 Opened as a rentalRemodeled and placed on the Recreation Rental program around the 1990s.Source: firelookout.com
  5. 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register March 1, 1998.Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Forest Service built Bald (Ingram) Butte Lookout in 1931, on the Fremont National Forest in Lake County, Oregon.1,2 It is a standard L-4 cab, a 14-by-14-foot room with windows on all sides, set directly on the ground rather than up on a tower.3,4

Like most lookouts of its era, it would have been staffed seasonally by Forest Service lookouts watching for smoke across the Fremont's sage basins and timbered ridges, though the record here doesn't give specific names or fire seasons. What is documented is a harder stretch later on: by the 1990s the cabin had suffered from vandalism.2 Rather than let it go, the Forest Service remodeled it and brought it into the agency's recreation rental program.2

Today the lookout still stands and can be rented through Recreation.gov. Guests sleep on two cots, and the small cabin has a propane heater and cook stove for warmth and cooking, plus basic lighting, though there's no water on site and renters need to bring their own drinking, cooking and washing supplies.5 Outside, there's a picnic table and an accessible vault toilet.5 Entry is by combination lock, available by contacting the Paisley Ranger District ahead of a stay.5 The surrounding Fremont National Forest offers hiking on the nearby Bald Butte Trail and access to the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, and the lookout's remote, high perch makes it a popular stargazing spot.5 It's listed on the National Historic Lookout Register, registered in 1998.1

  1. Bald Butte Lookout (Fremont NF), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/bald-butte-lookout-fremont-nf/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Bald (Ingram) Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/baldingram.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Bald Butte Lookout (Fremont NF), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/bald-butte-lookout-fremont-nf/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Bald (Ingram) Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/baldingram.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  5. Bald Butte Lookout, Recreation.gov, https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/234186 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bald Butte Lookout (Fremont NF)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bald (Ingram) Butte L.O.
Bald (Ingram) Butte L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access, rental details, links Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association: lookout rentals Gave us: rental details, links Forest Fire Lookout Association rentals list (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only (state, name, booking link, manager, closure note), no prose copied. The FFLA says it is not involved in managing any rental program. · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  5. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
  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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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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