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Fire lookout · Wasco County, Oregon

Beaver Butte Lookout Site

Beaver Butte on the Warm Springs Reservation (Wasco Co., OR): tent camp 1928, 16-ft L-4 tower 1931, gone by 1967; no source describes the site today.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Register says the site is administered by the Warm Springs Indian Reservation; no source read states visiting rules

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1967 per the Former Fire Lookout Sites register; no source read describes the site today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower16-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1928
Height
16 ft (4.9 m)
Elevation
5,066 ft (1,544 m)
Agency
Warm Springs Indian Reservation (Former Fire Lookout Sites); Mt. Hood National Forest and Warm Springs Indian Reservation (firelookout.com)
Land
Tribal land
Location
Wasco County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.05994, −121.58793
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-beaver-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 3.6 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. 1928 BuiltTent camp built on the site (register description)Source: firetower.org
  2. 1928 FireEmergency lookout reported a fire on July 17, 1928 at the spot of a May lightning fire on Beaver Creek; it appears to have been a holdover and stayed within a one-eighth-acre fire lineSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 EventJanuary 10, 1928 letter: a telephone line had been built to North Pinhead the year before; material on hand for a line to Beaver Butte that year; both points to be occupied only during high fire hazardSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1928 StaffedEmergency lookout in use in July 1928 (quoted report)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1931 Built16-foot pole L-4 tower replaced the tent campSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1931 and 1950
  7. 1950 StaffedJames Beima, assistant coach at Madras Union High School, spent the summer as fire lookout (Bend Bulletin item quoted on the page)Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1950 and 1967
  9. 1967 RemovedGone by 1967 (register); R.I.P. 1931-1967 (firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1967 and 2010
  11. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 17, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  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.

Beaver Butte stands at 5,066 feet on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Wasco County, Oregon.1 A tent camp went up on the site in 1928.1 On January 10, 1928, a letter from the forest ranger at Wapinita to the Warm Springs forest supervisor said a telephone line had been built to North Pinhead the year before, that the material was on hand for a line to Beaver Butte's summit that year, and that both points would be occupied only during periods of high fire hazard.2

In 1931 the tent camp gave way to a 16-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,3

On July 17, 1928, the emergency lookout on Beaver Butte flagged a fire in the same place as a May lightning fire on Beaver Creek that had been presumed out.4 The quoted report says the new fire appears to have been a holdover that lodged in a treetop, and that it stayed inside the original fire line, which enclosed about one-eighth of an acre.4

In the summer of 1950, James Beima, an assistant coach at Madras Union High School, worked as the fire lookout, according to a Bend Bulletin item quoted on the page.4,3

The tower was gone by 1967.1 Firelookout.com gives its span as 1931 to 1967.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register lists the site, registered on August 17, 2010, on the nomination of Ray Kresek.1 It says the site is administered by the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.1 The register does not describe what remains at the site today, and it says nothing about whether visitors may go there.1 Anyone thinking of a visit should ask the reservation first.

  1. Beaver Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/beaver-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wasco County - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wasco-county.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Beaver Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/beaver.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Beaver Butte - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/beaver-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Beaver Butte Lookout Site
Photo: 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, ownership, access, 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, height, status, agency, access, 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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