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Fire lookout · Harney County, Oregon

Bald Butte Lookout (Ochoco NF)

Also known as Bald Butte

Bald Butte, 15 miles NW of Burns, Oregon: 1931 first lookout, 1959 41-foot R-6 timber tower; a 2007 report says it burned, a 2018 visit found it standing and abandoned.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. A Forest Service fence surrounds the base (2018 visit). The sources describe no public climbing and no rental.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
2018 visit: a short dirt spur road from Road 41, blocked by a fallen tree about half a mile up
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 wooden flattop cab on a 41-foot treated timber towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
5,867 ft (1,788 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Harney County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.68320, −119.36690
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bald-butte-ochoco-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 3.4 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 BuiltFirst lookout: a wood tower completed August 12, 1931 by George Roba and Ira Swift. Forest Lookouts quotes 42 ft; the register describes a 45-foot pole towerSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 First staffedFrank Merritt occupied the tower for the balance of the 1931 seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1931 and 1959
  4. 1959 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1959 Replaced by a new structureThe first lookout was replaced by the current 41-foot R-6 timber towerSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
  6. No record between 1959 and 2002
  7. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 16, 2002 as US 425, OR 50; nominated by Howard VerschoorSource: nhlr.org
  8. 2007 BurnedListed as lost in 2007 (1959-2007) and described as burnt to the ground. A 2018 visit found the tower standing, so this is disputedSources: firelookout.org, cherylhill.net
  9. 2018 Condition assessmentMay 25, 2018 visit found the tower standing, abandoned, in bad shape, with pieces scattered below and a Forest Service fence at the baseSource: cherylhill.net
  10. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bald Butte sits about 15 miles northwest of Burns, in Harney County, Oregon.1 The National Historic Lookout Register lists it on the Ochoco National Forest and names the U.S. Forest Service as its administrator.2

The first lookout went up in 1931, when George Roba and Ira Swift finished a wood tower on August 12.3 The Forest Lookouts history quotes an Ochoconian report saying the tower stood 42 feet high, with an 8-foot-square house on top, and that it could see country the other Snow Mountain lookouts could not.3 The register describes that first structure as a 45-foot pole tower, with a cab and quarters at ground level, built in 1931.2 A 2018 visitor's page gives 1935 for a 45-foot pole tower with a ground cabin.4 The sources disagree on the first tower's height and date.2,3,4

Frank Merritt occupied the tower for the rest of that first season.3 The current tower dates from 1959 and is 41 feet tall, with a wooden R-6 flat-topped cab.2,3 The register says it is staffed as needed, but a 2018 visit found it had not been staffed in decades.2,4

In 2007 the Oregon chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association listed Bald Butte among three Oregon lookouts lost that year.5 The chapter's report, signed by its director, says the writers made two trips to salvage windows, a door and lightning rods before the tower was burnt to the ground.5 The report does not say how the fire, if there was one, started.5

A visitor on May 25, 2018 found the tower still standing, abandoned and in bad shape, with fragments of it lying further down the slope.4 A fence around the base, put up by the Forest Service, is meant to stop people going up.4 Firelookout.com calls the tower condemned and severely vandalized, though that page is undated.1 The 2007 and 2018 accounts disagree on whether the tower survives, and these sources do not settle it.4,5

A spur road branches off Road 41 toward the lookout, but in 2018 a fallen tree blocked it about half a mile up, so the visitor parked and walked the rest.4 Do not climb the tower. The fence and the condition reports are reasons to stay off the structure. The sources describe no rental.

  1. Bald Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/or/baldbutte96.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bald Butte Lookout (Ochoco NF), National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/bald-butte-lookout-ochoco-nf/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bald Butte, Forest Lookouts Oregon (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bald-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Bald Butte – Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill (cherylhill.net), visit of May 25, 2018, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2018/05/30/bald-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon Chapter Report 2007, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-or-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bald Butte Lookout (Ochoco NF)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bald Butte Lookout (Ochoco NF)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bald Butte Lookout (Ochoco NF)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bald Butte L.O.
Bald Butte L.OPhoto: Rex Kamstra, 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1959
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1931
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1959
    • Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: 1959

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, height, 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
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.