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Fire lookout · Tillamook County, Oregon

Cedar Butte Lookout Site

Cedar Butte lookout, Tillamook County: 1937 tower, 1939 L-4 tower after a fire, 1955 duties moved to Triangulation Point; now demolished, with a short hike to the former site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The 1939 L-4 tower is gone. Oregon Hikers reports the demolished cabin left glass shards on the site. The weebly list says removed, with no date.

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. Listed by Oregon Hikers as a short hike to the former lookout site. No closure is noted in the sources.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Oregon Hikers lists a short, steep hike of 1.6 miles with 780 ft of gain to the former site. No tower remains to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on a 40-foot tower (1939)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1917
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,100 ft (945 m)
Agency
Northwest Oregon FPA/OFD (per FFLOS); Oregon Department of Forestry (per weebly and firelookout.com)
Land
Unknown
Location
Tillamook County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.59058, −123.64705
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-cedar-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. 1917 BuiltSources differ on the first structure: rag camp and pole platform (FFLOS), crow's nest and cabin (firelookout.com), observation point (weebly).Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1917 and 1936
  3. 1936 EventNewspaper report that a lookout would be established on Cedar Butte in the 1933 burn area.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1937 Built40-foot tower and cab. FFLOS calls it a 40' pole live-in tower.Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1937 StaffedAlfred Hastings was the lookout, per The Forest Log, September 1937.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1938 DestroyedFFLOS says the 1937 tower was destroyed by a forest fire in 1938. Oregon Hikers dates a fire that hit the lookout to 1939, without naming the tower.Sources: firetower.org, oregonhikers.org
  7. 1939 BurnedOregon Hikers says the fire lookout became a victim of one of the massive fires of the 1930s and 1940s in 1939.Source: oregonhikers.org
  8. 1939 FireTrask fire. Gene Scott, Cedar Butte lookout, reported to have escaped a ring of fire by swimming and wading four miles down the Wilson River.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1939 RebuiltNew 40-foot tower with a 14x14 L-4 cab, per the weebly page. FFLOS says a 40' pole L-4 tower was constructed.Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1942 EventLookout activated for the Portland Filter Center on March 18, 1942.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1955 Replaced by a new structureLookout duties transferred to the new lookout at Triangulation Point. This is a change of duty, not a removal date.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1955 and 2010
  13. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register on September 23, 2010.Source: firetower.org
  14. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Cedar Butte rises about 12 miles northeast of Tillamook, in Tillamook County.1,2

Sources disagree on the first structure. The Forest Fire Lookout Association says a rag camp and a pole platform went up in 1917, firelookout.com lists a crow's nest and cabin, and a weebly page calls it an observation point that year.2,1,3

After the 1933 Tillamook burn, a 1936 newspaper report said a new lookout was planned for Cedar Butte.3 The first tower came in 1937, a 40-foot structure with a cab.2,3

The Forest Fire Lookout Association says a forest fire destroyed that tower in 1938.2 Oregon Hikers instead dates a fire that hit the lookout to 1939, without saying which tower it meant.4 A new 40-foot tower with an L-4 cab went up in 1939.2,3

In August 1939, during the Trask fire, a newspaper reported that Gene Scott, the Cedar Butte lookout, had broken through a ring of fire around his station and then traveled four miles along the Wilson River, swimming and wading.3 The lookout was activated for the Portland Filter Center on March 18, 1942.3 Lookout duties moved to a new lookout at Triangulation Point in 1955.3 A weebly list marks the Cedar Butte lookout as removed, with no date given.3

The 1939 tower is now gone.2 Oregon Hikers describes two benches on the former site, with views west down the South Fork Kilchis valley to the ocean. It says broken glass from the torn-down cabin is scattered around the site.4 The hike is short but steep, about 1.6 miles with 780 feet of climb.4

  1. Cedar Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/cedarbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cedar Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/cedar-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cedar Butte, FOREST LOOKOUTS (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/cedar-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cedar Butte, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Cedar_Butte (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Cedar Butte Lookout
Cedar Butte LookoutPhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cedar Butte Lookout 1917 - 1937
Cedar Butte Lookout 1917 - 1937 (1917)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cedar Butte Lookout ground cabin
Cedar Butte Lookout ground cabinPhoto: 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, 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: what it is built of, 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

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