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Fire lookout · Coos County, Oregon

Bill Peak Lookout Site

Also known as Bill Butte

Coos County, OR ground lookout (Bill's Butte): CCC cab 1938, Aircraft Warning post 1942, 1962 replacement; register says removed 1967, state inventory still lists it in 1974-77.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone. Register gives removal in 1967 but state inventory still listed it as a secondary lookout in 1977; no source describes the summit today.

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cab built by the CCC in 1938 as a ground cabin; 14x14 ft ground house in 1962 (register says Amort cab)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,541 ft (470 m)
Agency
Coos Fire Patrol (Coos County FPA), later the Oregon Department of Forestry per the register
Land
Unknown
Location
Coos County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.01587, −124.31294
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bill-peak

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 3.5 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. 1938 BuiltStandard lookout cabin built by the Camp McKinley CCC; the register describes an L-4 cab on the groundSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 StaffedManned by Ned Baker of Marshfield in July 1939Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1942 EventActivated for the Aircraft Warning Service on March 9, 1942; a 10-by-12-foot sleeping quarters was under construction by September 1942Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1948 StaffedStaffed full time in 1948; staffing cost $561.00Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1961 RemovedOld lookout torn down after the 1961 fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1962 Replaced by a new structure14-by-14-foot ground house built at a cost of $3,469 (district report); register says an Amort cabSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, firetower.org
  7. 1965 EventReactivated after two years out of use to watch an area where incendiary fires had been reportedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1967 RemovedRegister gives 1967 as the removal date for the Amort cab; the state inventory still listed the lookout as a secondary observation point in 1974 and as a secondary lookout in 1977Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1977 EventClassified as a secondary lookout in March 1977Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1977 and 2019
  11. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 11, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Bill Peak, also called Bill's Butte in the old newspapers, rises about 1,541 feet in Coos County, Oregon.1,2

In 1938 the Coos Fire Patrol added a lookout there, because the area had been hard to watch from its existing stations and the land had just been logged.2 The lookout was a ground cabin, and a road and a telephone line were being built to it that year.2 The Camp McKinley CCC put up a standard lookout cabin on Bill's Butte that year.2,3 The register describes it as an L-4 cab built by the CCC.1 Newspaper reports put the site eight miles southeast of Bandon in 1938 and ten miles in 1939.2

The patrol manned it in its early years. In July 1939 Ned Baker of Marshfield was on duty at the station, and in 1940 an Oregon State College student was assigned there.2 In 1948 full-time staffing of the lookout cost $561.00.2

In 1942 the Aircraft Warning Service activated the site on March 9, and the record lists the Roseburg Filter Center alongside it.2 By September a sealed, double-walled 10-by-12-foot sleeping quarters was under construction.2 When the service was dropped, the state took the site back.2 A 1942 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description calls the summit building a white wooden lookout house, 12 feet square and 15 feet high.2

The old lookout was torn down after the 1961 fire season.2 A 1961 newspaper item mentioned a new tower being erected there.2 The 1962 district report instead describes a new 14-by-14-foot ground house, built at a cost of $3,469.2,3 The register, by contrast, names an Amort cab from 1962.1 The lookout was reactivated in 1965, after two years out of use, to watch an area where incendiary fires had been reported.2

The register lists the lookout as removed in 1967.1 The state inventory still listed it as a secondary observation point in 1974, and as a secondary lookout in 1977.2 The sources disagree on when it came down.1,2 Fire Lookout lists the site simply as gone.3

None of the sources we read describes what remains on the summit today, or whether the public can reach it.1,2,3

  1. Bill Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/bill-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bill Peak - Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bill-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bill Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/or/billpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Bill Peak Lookout 1962 - 1967
Bill Peak Lookout 1962 - 1967 (1962)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bill Peak Lookout 1938 - 1962
Bill Peak Lookout 1938 - 1962 (1938)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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, 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.