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Fire lookout · Hood River County, Oregon

Barlow Butte Lookout Site

Hood River County, OR tower: a 20-foot pole L-5 tower built by the USFS in 1933, never manned, gone by 1949; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1949; no source read describes what, if anything, remains at the summit

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 tower20-foot pole L-5 tower built by the USFS in 1933The design: L-5
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,069 ft (1,545 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Hood River County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.27567, −121.66897
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-barlow-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.

Downloads about 3.7 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 Built20-foot pole L-5 tower built by the USFS in 1933Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1933 EventPanorama photos taken November 7, 1933 by James Rittenhouse and Robert Snyder, per Oregon LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1949
  4. 1949 RemovedBoth sources say the tower was gone by 1949Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1949 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 16, 2010 as US 568, OR 9Source: firetower.org
  7. 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 Forest Service built a 20-foot pole tower of the L-5 type on Barlow Butte in 1933.1,2 The site lies in Hood River County, about seven miles south of Mount Hood.1,2 The Register says the tower was never manned, and Firelookout.com says it was never used.1,2

Oregon Lookouts notes that James Rittenhouse and Robert Snyder made panoramic photos at Barlow Butte on November 7, 1933.3

Both sources say the tower was gone by 1949.1,2

The Register lists the site as registered on August 16, 2010, as US 568, OR 9.1 It records the site's elevation as 5,069 feet (1,545 meters).1

None of the sources we read describes what remains on the butte today, or whether the summit is open to visitors.

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

Photos

Barlow Butte Lookout panoramic
Barlow Butte Lookout panoramicPhoto: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Barlow Butte Lookout site 2012
Barlow Butte Lookout site 2012 (2012)Photo: Howard Verschoor, 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, 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: 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

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