FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Fox Butte Lookout

1933 80-ft steel tower on Fox Butte, Deschutes NF; 1926 fire damage disputed; unmanned, gated road; 2021 removal proposal listed as cancelled.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. A locked gate on the access road is about three-quarters of a mile below the summit; visitors walk the rest. No source says the tower is open to climbing.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Walk past the locked gate; a 2021 visitor walked 1.1 miles to the summit. The cabin is in disrepair and the tower's first landing is the highest point that visitor reached. Do not climb.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80-ft steel Aermotor tower with metal 7 by 7 ft cab; gable-roof L-4 ground cabin moved from Sixteen Butte in 1948The designs: L-4, Aermotor, D-6
Built of
Steel
Built
1924
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
6,065 ft (1,849 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.61051, −120.84264
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fox-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 3.8 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. 1919 StaffedHeliograph set up on the west point; lookout Oscar Harding posted at the stationSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1920 EventTelephone line built from the Cabin Lake Ranger Station to the west pointSource: nhlr.org
  3. 1924 BuiltStandard D-6 cupola constructed on the west pointSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1926 BurnedFire swept the summit in August 1926; sources disagree on whether the cupola or the tower burnedSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1927 EventMarch 1927 preliminary budget draft allotted $250 for a new Fox Butte lookout stationSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1933 Built80-ft steel Aermotor tower with 7x7 cab completed in June 1933; cabin from the west point moved to the tower siteSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1933 and 1948
  8. 1948 MovedGable-roof L-4 cabin moved from Sixteen Butte to replace the earlier ground cabinSources: nhlr.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1959 FireStation abandoned overnight in July 1959 as a fire burned around itSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1959 and 1995
  11. 1995 StaffedStaffed full time while the East Butte lookout was rebuilt; duties returned in 1996Sources: firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, cherylhill.net
  12. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 19, 1996 as US 146, OR 22Source: nhlr.org
  13. No record between 1996 and 2021
  14. 2021 EventForest Service building disposal project proposed removing the tower and cabin; project summary now lists it as cancelledSources: cherylhill.net, fs.usda.gov
  15. 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.

Fox Butte is a summit in Lake County, Oregon, within the Deschutes National Forest.1,2 In 1919 a heliograph was set up on its west point, and a lookout named Oscar Harding was posted there while his father kept a camp at the foot of the butte.1,3 A telephone line from the Cabin Lake Ranger Station reached the west point in 1920, and a standard D-6 cupola followed in 1924.1

In August 1926 a fire swept over the summit. The register says it burned the cupola.1 A Bend newspaper reported that the fire destroyed the lookout tower and forced the lookout off the peak.3 A January 1927 report disagreed. It said the tower itself was not burned, though two of its supports were burned and the tower started to fall. The supports were spliced, and the tower was put back in condition soon after.3 The sources do not settle how much was lost. The lookout, Arthur Middleton, stayed on the telephone until the fire was almost upon him.3

A March 1927 preliminary budget draft allotted $250 for a new Fox Butte lookout station.3 The current 80-foot steel Aermotor tower, with a metal 7-by-7 foot cab, was built in 1933.1,2 A Bend newspaper in June 1933 called it the highest in the Deschutes National Forest and said it was ready for use.3 The register says the cabin from the west point was moved to the tower site that year. A gable-roofed L-4 house from Sixteen Butte replaced it in 1948.1,3

Clippings name Roy Nettleton as stationed on the butte in 1932, and Howard Hein as the planned lookout for summer 1933.3 In July 1959 a fire forced the station to be abandoned overnight.3

In 1995 the tower was staffed full time while a new East Butte lookout was built, and the duties went back to East Butte in 1996.2,3,4

In 2021 the Forest Service proposed a building disposal project that would have removed the tower and cabin.4,5 Its project summary now lists the project as cancelled, last updated in February 2025.5

A 2021 visitor found the road gated for the last three-quarters of a mile and walked the rest. The cabin had fallen into disrepair, and the visitor went up the tower only to the first landing, unsure how safe it was.4

Firelookout.com says the lookout is on emergency standby, and the Oregon directory lists it as unmanned.2,6 That directory's public-access column only means the site is not on private land, not that the lookout itself is open.6 Please do not climb the tower, since no source we read says it is safe.4

  1. Fox Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/fox-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Fox Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/foxbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Fox Butte - Forest Lookouts (newspaper clippings), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fox-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Fox Butte - Every Lookout in Oregon (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2021/06/15/fox-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Building Disposal Project, Project Summary #59894, Deschutes National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/deschutes/projects/59894 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, Every Lookout in Oregon (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Fox Butte Lookout - 2006
Fox Butte Lookout - 2006 (2006)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fox Butte Lookout - 1942
Fox Butte Lookout - 1942 (1942)Photo: Deschutes National Forest Archives, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fox Butte in 1937
Fox Butte in 1937 (1937)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Fox Butte L.O.
Fox Butte L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Fox Butte L.O.
Fox Butte L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Fox Butte L.O.
Fox Butte L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, and Gary Weber, 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, 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: design, dates, 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: 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. 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, 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

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