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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Disappointment (Lowell) Butte Lookout Site

Also known as Lowell Butte

Lane County lookout 1 mile NE of Lowell, Oregon: 1948 steel tower replaced 1930s crow's nest; dismantled 1979 or removed 1982; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed 1982 per the register and firelookout.com; Rex's page says dismantled and salvaged in 1979

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 tower1948 war-surplus steel tower with a small cab and L-4 ground living quarters (register: 8x8 ft cab; annual report via Rex's page: 7x7 ft cab and 14x14 ft ground house)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
2,142 ft (653 m)
Agency
Eastern Lane Forest Protective Association (Eastern Lane FPA)
Land
Unknown
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.92747, −122.76209
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-disappointment-lowell-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 4.1 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. 1935 EventLookout tree established around 1935 (Rex's page); the register dates the crow's nest and cabin only to the 1930sSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1948 Replaced by a new structureWar-surplus steel tower replaced the crow's nest and cabin; sources disagree on tower height (30 vs 35 ft) and cab sizeSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1957 StaffedA woman served as tower observer for the Eastern Lane Forest Protective Association for the last two summers (Lebanon Express item on Rex's page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1957 and 1974
  5. 1974 EventTower glass broken out and 15 to 20 windows broken in the living quarters; wood cook stove stolen a week before occupancy and replaced with a gas stoveSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1979 RemovedRex's page: lookout dismantled and salvaged; conflicts with the 1982 removal dateSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1982 RemovedRegister and firelookout.com: tower and living quarters removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1982 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 25, 2011Source: 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.

Lowell Butte, which the register lists as Disappointment (Lowell) Butte, sits about a mile northeast of Lowell in Lane County, Oregon.1,2

A crow's nest and a cabin went up on the butte in the 1930s.1 Rex's Fire Lookout Page says a lookout tree was established there around 1935.3 In 1948 a steel tower replaced them, and the Eastern Lane Forest Protective Association ran it.1,3 The sources disagree on its size. Rex's page quotes a district annual report that describes a 30-foot tower with a 7-by-7 cab and a 14-by-14 ground house for living quarters.3 The register gives 35 feet and an 8-by-8 cab.1

A 1957 Lebanon Express item, quoted on Rex's page, describes a woman who had served as tower observer on the butte for the last two summers. It also reports rattlesnakes on the tower steps.3

The 1974 season brought damage.3 According to the annual report quoted on Rex's page, all the glass was broken out of the tower, and the living quarters lost 15 to 20 windows. A wood cook stove was stolen a week before the lookout was due to move in, and a gas stove replaced it.3

Rex's page says the lookout was dismantled and salvaged in 1979.3 The register and firelookout.com instead date its removal to 1982, and firelookout.com gives the life span as 1948 to 1982.1,2 The sources do not agree on the year.

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the butte today. We found nothing on current access. The register names the Eastern Lane FPA as administrator, so start there before planning a visit.1

  1. Disappointment (Lowell) Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/disappointment-lowell-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Disappointment (Lowell) Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lowellbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lowell Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lowell-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Disappointment (Lowell) Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Disappointment (Lowell) Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1953
1953 (1953)Photo: 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: 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, 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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