FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Wasco County, Oregon

Eagle Butte Lookout

Aermotor fire tower on the Warm Springs reservation, Wasco County; Register dates it 1935 but agency letters date purchase to 1939 and erection to 1940; staffed, closed to public access.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Register says it is closed to public access; located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation; directory lists it as not accessible to the public

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2026-07)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower107-foot Aermotor tower with 7-by-7-foot metal cab and ground house living quartersThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
107 ft (32.6 m)
Elevation
3,168 ft (966 m)
Agency
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Land
Tribal land
Location
Wasco County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.84027, −121.23375
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-eagle-butte

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com give 1935; agency letters quoted by Forest Lookouts date the purchase and erection to 1939-1940 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1939 EventCCC-ID Project 119 approved May 11, 1939 for purchase and erection of an Eagle Butte tower; an 80-foot tower bought for Shitike Butte in 1935 is the cost basisSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1940 EventErection more than half complete by June 1, 1940, per agency letterSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1950 StaffedKnown lookout personnel: Sam ScottSource: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1950 and 1974
  6. 1974 FireLightning storm August 5, 1974: lookout Peggy Forseth, 19, stayed at her post; The Bulletin reported seven lightning blazes, six near the tower; the 2024 Madras Pioneer retrospective recalls four blazes (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, youroregonnews.com
  7. 1974 StaffedPeggy Forseth worked five-day stretches on duty and stayed in a cabin by the towerSource: youroregonnews.com
  8. 1987 AlteredTower renovated with new window, steps, walls, ceilings and paneling; living quarters remodeledSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1987 and 2003
  10. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003 as US 488, OR 81Source: nhlr.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Eagle Butte stands on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Wasco County, Oregon, about 15 miles north-northwest of Madras.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register gives its build year as 1935 and describes a 107-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1 Firelookout.com also gives about 1935.2 The record is not so simple, though. Agency letters quoted on the Forest Lookouts history page describe a CCC-ID project approved in May 1939 to buy and erect a tower on Eagle Butte. By June 1940 the erection was more than half finished.3 The sources do not reconcile these dates.

The fullest record of staffing is from 1974.3,4 Lookout Peggy Forseth, 19, stayed at her post during a lightning storm that August.3,4 The Bulletin, quoted by Forest Lookouts, reported seven lightning blazes, six of them near the tower.3 A 2024 Madras Pioneer retrospective recalls four blazes instead.4 Forseth stayed in a cabin by the tower and worked five-day stretches on duty.4 Firelookout.com lists a 1950 lookout, Sam Scott, and says the tower is staffed every summer.2

A 1987 renovation brought a new window, steps, walls, ceilings and paneling, and the living quarters were remodeled.3 The Register lists the lookout as registered on March 31, 2003.1 The sources read do not describe the tower being moved or taken down.

The Register says the tower remains in active service, and that the site is closed to public access.1 Cheryl Hill's directory of standing Oregon lookouts lists it as staffed and not accessible to the public, though it warns that its information may be out of date.5 The Register names the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs as its administrator.1 Anyone interested in the site should check with the tribes first, since the Register describes it as closed to public access.

  1. Eagle Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/eagle-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Eagle Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/eaglebutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Eagle Butte, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/eagle-butte1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Looking Back: Fire tower watch in 1974, Madras Pioneer via Your Oregon News, https://youroregonnews.com/2024/08/07/looking-back-fire-tower-watch-in-1974/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Eagle Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Eagle Butte L.O.
Eagle Butte L.OPhoto: Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: height, staffing, photos, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.