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Fire lookout · Tillamook County, Oregon

Buzzard Butte Lookout Site

Siuslaw NF tower site: 30-ft CCC tower (1934 per Oregon Forest Lookouts), 40-ft L-4 from 1948; damaged or destroyed in a 1954/55 windstorm; listed as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed or removed after a mid-1950s windstorm and never replaced; sources give 1954 or 1955. No tower stands per the Forest Fire Lookout Association list.

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 towerL-4 timber tower; last one 40 ft (built 1948)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
1,686 ft (514 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Tillamook County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.27801, −123.87848
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-buzzard-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 4.2 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. 1934 Built30-ft timber L-4 tower with hip-roof cab, built by the CCC (Oregon Forest Lookouts). The register dates a 30-ft tower to 1948 instead.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 EventShort-wave radio installed for communication between lookout and ranger station.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 EventTelephone line, about seven miles, run up to the lookout (quoted from The Salt forest newsletter).Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 EventActivated March 19, 1942, for the Portland Filter Center.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1948 Replaced by a new structure40-ft wooden L-4 tower built in 1948 to replace the first tower.Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1954 EventLookout severely damaged during a wind storm (Oregon Forest Lookouts).Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1955 Destroyed40-ft tower destroyed in a 1955 storm and never replaced (register and firelookout.com). Oregon Forest Lookouts dates the storm damage to 1954.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1955 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 23, 2010, nominated by Ray Kresek (US 674, OR 106).Source: firetower.org
  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.

Buzzard Butte's lookout stood in the Siuslaw National Forest in Tillamook County, Oregon, about 16 miles south of Tillamook.1,2

The Eugene Register-Guard reported in May 1934 that a tower would go up on the ridge that divides Sand Lake from the Nestucca watershed.3 The Oregon Forest Lookouts site says the CCC built a 30-foot timber tower that year, topped by an L-4 cab with a hip roof.3

By September 1936 a short-wave radio linked the lookout with the ranger station.3 In April 1937 a telephone crew finished seven miles of line up to the tower.3 The Oregon Forest Lookouts page also records activation on March 19, 1942, for the Portland Filter Center.3

In 1948 a 40-foot timber tower with an L-4 cab replaced the first one.1,3,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register also places the first tower in 1948, which conflicts with the 1934 date. This account follows the earlier chronology from the Oregon Forest Lookouts site.1,3

Oregon Forest Lookouts says a windstorm severely damaged the lookout in 1954.3 The register and firelookout.com instead place its destruction in a 1955 storm and say no replacement was built.1,2

The Oregon Forest Lookouts site lists the tower as removed, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks the site as gone.3,4 None of the sources describes what, if anything, remains on the butte today, or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Buzzard Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/buzzard-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Buzzard Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/buzzardbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Buzzard Butte - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/buzzard-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon Lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Buzzard 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, 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, 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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