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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Coffin Butte Lookout Site

Douglas County, OR 40-foot L-4 tower, built 1934 or 1937 (sources differ), removed or destroyed 1963; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1963 according to the sources; a directory of standing Oregon lookouts does not list it. No source describes what remains.

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 tower40-foot pole L-4 tower (Oregon lookouts page: L-4 lookout house on a 40-foot round timber tower)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
4,300 ft (1,311 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.92790, −122.76899
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-coffin-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 3.7 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt 1934 per the register and Firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1937 BuiltOregon lookouts page dates the L-4 lookout house to 1937; conflicts with 1934Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1938 FireLookout station used for several days during a forest fire in the vicinity (News-Review item, November 1938); fire not namedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1938 StaffedJohn Hutchinson described as Forest Service lookout at Coffin Butte (Roseburg News-Review item, September 12, 1938)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1939 EventLookout injured chopping wood and carried out from the remote post by packhorse (Oregon Statesman item, July 1939)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1952 StaffedElinor Sherk driven to Tiller to assume duties as fire lookout at Coffin Butte (News-Review item, July 1952)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1963 DestroyedDeteriorated; disposal called for; two men given the job of destroying it (Oregon lookouts page); Firelookout.com says destroyed 1963Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1963 RemovedRegister says removed in 1963Source: firetower.org
  9. No record between 1963 and 2010
  10. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register December 9, 2010Source: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Coffin Butte is in the Umpqua National Forest in Douglas County, Oregon, about 29 miles west of Crater Lake.1,2

The register and Firelookout.com say a 40-foot pole L-4 tower went up in 1934.1,2 The Oregon lookouts page dates the L-4 lookout house to 1937, so the build year is disputed.3

Staffing records are scattered. A September 1938 item from the Roseburg News-Review described John Hutchinson as the Forest Service lookout at Coffin Butte.3 In November of that year, the same paper said he had spent several days posted at the station because of a forest fire in the area.3 A July 1939 item from the Oregon Statesman reported that a lookout there had been hurt chopping wood and was carried out from his remote post by packhorse.3 In July 1952 the News-Review reported that Elinor Sherk was driven to Tiller to start work as the Coffin Butte fire lookout.3

By 1963 the lookout had deteriorated so far that its disposal was called for, and two men were given the job of destroying it.3 The register says it was removed in 1963, and Firelookout.com says it was destroyed.1,2 The register added the site on December 9, 2010.1

We found no source describing what remains at the site today, such as footings or a foundation, and none says whether the site is open to the public. A directory of Oregon lookouts that are still standing does not list Coffin Butte.4

  1. Coffin Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/coffin-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Coffin Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/coffinbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Coffin Butte - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/coffin-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Coffin Butte Lookout 1940
Coffin Butte Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Rex Kamstra 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, 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, staffing, 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.