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Fire lookout · Hood River County, Oregon

Bald Butte Lookout Site

Former Forest Service lookout on Bald Butte, Hood River County: an 80-foot tower of 1941, cut to about 41 feet in 1944, gone by 1972.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed by 1972 per the register, Rex's page, firelookout.com and Oregon Hikers; no source describes what remains on the site

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Vehicles reach the site by Forest Road 17 and a powerline corridor; the Oregon Hikers guide also notes frequent ATV use

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Oregon Hikers lists a moderate 8.2-mile route that climbs through open meadows to the former lookout site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1941
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,779 ft (1,152 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Mount Hood National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Hood River County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.53623, −121.53229
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bald-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 3.3 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 EventHood River County court agreed to deed a butte at the head of Neal Creek to the Forest Service; a new tower was plannedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1941 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date an 80-foot tower to 1941; Rex's page gives no build dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1941 StaffedStaffed 95 days; reports went through the Parkdale Ranger StationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1944 AlteredTower cut to about 41 feet; firelookout.com says an L-4 cab was added the same yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1952 Replaced by a new structureRex's page says a 40-foot timber tower with an L-4 cab replaced the old towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1965 StaffedThe station sent in one first report for the whole fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1972 RemovedGone by 1972 per the register and firelookout.com; removed per Rex's page; decommissioned per Oregon HikersSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1972 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: August 16, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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.

Hood River County agreed in 1933 to deed a butte at the head of Neal Creek to the Forest Service, and the Sunday Oregonian reported that a new tower and trail would follow.1 The register and firelookout.com date the tower to 1941, when an 80-foot tower was built on the site, and both say it was cut down to about 41 feet in 1944.2,3 Rex's Fire Lookout Page tells a different story. It describes a 40-foot timber tower with an L-4 cab that replaced the old tower in 1952.1 The sources disagree on the dates and the height, and we could not settle which account is right.

The lookout was staffed for 95 days in 1941, and its reports went through the Parkdale Ranger Station, with the connections running through the Oregon-Washington Telephone Company.1 In 1965 the station filed only one first report across the entire fire season.1

The register and firelookout.com both say the tower was gone by 1972.2,3 Rex's page records its removal that year, and Oregon Hikers says the tower was decommissioned in 1972.1,4

We found no source that describes what, if anything, is left on the butte. Oregon Hikers calls it a grassy former lookout site at the north end of Surveyors Ridge. It describes the lookout as a 40-foot timber tower with a cabin, but says nothing about what remains.4 The guide says vehicles can reach the site on Forest Road 17 and a powerline corridor, and that ATV use is frequent.4 The field guide lists a moderate 8.2-mile route that climbs through open meadows to the site.4 The site is in Hood River County on Mount Hood National Forest land.1 Check with the forest for current conditions before you go.

  1. Bald Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bald-butte1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bald Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/bald-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bald Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/baldbutte33.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Bald Butte - Oregon Hikers Field Guide, Oregon Hikers, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Bald_Butte (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bald Butte Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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: design, 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, 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.