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Fire lookout · Tillamook County, Oregon

Edwards Butte Lookout Site

Tillamook County, OR tower site administered by the Oregon Dept. of Forestry; built 1940 after the 1933 burn; removed 1956 or 1960, sources differ; no current description.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1956 or 1960 (sources differ); no source we read describes what remains on the butte today

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 L-4 tower; sources differ on pole or timber constructionThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1940
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,160 ft (963 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Tillamook County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.39201, −123.68499
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-edwards-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 3.9 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. 1936 EventNewspaper report quoted on Forest Lookouts page: a lookout would be established on Edwards Butte in the southwestern part of the 1933 burned areaSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 Built40-foot L-4 tower built; the register says pole, Forest Lookouts says timber; cab reported as 14x14 (no unit given)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1942 EventActivated March 9, 1942, per Forest Lookouts page, which also names the Portland Filter Center in the same entrySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1956 RemovedRegister says removed in 1956; firelookout.com says destroyed 1956Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1960 RemovedForest Lookouts page gives 1960 as the removal year; conflicts with the 1956 dateSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 8, 2010 as FFLOS US 705, OR 116; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Edwards Butte is in Tillamook County, Oregon, and the Oregon Department of Forestry administered the lookout.1,2 The sources disagree on where it sits. One places it nine miles southeast of Tillamook,2 while a 1940 issue of The Forest Log, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, puts it nine miles west of Camp Trask.3

The idea goes back to 1936.3 A newspaper report from that year, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, said the lookout was planned for the southwest portion of the area burned in 1933.3 A 1937 annual report said plans were under consideration to finish the lookout during 1939.3

The tower went up in 1940.1,2 The Forest Log that October described a crew under foreman A.F. Koster building it, with lumber packed in over a five-mile trail and a cabin for the crew to use.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register calls it a 40-foot pole L-4 tower.1 The Forest Lookouts page calls it a timber tower with a 14-by-14 cab.3 The same page gives an activation date of March 9, 1942, and names the Portland Filter Center in the same entry.3

The sources disagree about when the tower came down. The register says it was removed in 1956.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2 The Forest Lookouts page gives 1960 as the year it was removed.3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the butte today, and none says whether the site is open to visitors.1,2,3 Anyone curious should check with the Oregon Department of Forestry before going.

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

Photos

Edwards Butte Lookout site 2010
Edwards Butte Lookout site 2010 (2010)Photo: Howard Verschoor, 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, 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, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.