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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Fuzztail Butte Lookout Site

Deschutes NF lookout on a volcanic cone: L-4 cab built 1933 after a 1932 designation, abandoned 1952; registers say it is now gone, with no site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1952; the register and firelookout.com say it is now gone

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on a volcanic coneThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,734 ft (1,748 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.86608, −121.20927
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fuzztail-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.3 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. 1932 EventA five-mile telephone line was planned to reach the butteSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab; the register and firelookout.com both give 1933Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1934 EventCCC carpentry crew from the Odell Lake camp completed a garage in September, per the lookout historySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 FireHorse Ridge fire, a mile long, origin undetermined, discovered by the Fuzztail Butte lookout (August 1939)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1952 AbandonedRegister and firelookout.com: abandoned in 1952Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1952 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 4, 2011 as US 1025, OR 383Source: 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.

Fuzztail Butte is a volcanic cone in the Deschutes National Forest, about 13 miles south-southeast of LaPine.1,2

In June 1932 the Bend Bulletin reported that the forest had made the butte a fire lookout station, in the Fort Rock district near Swamp Wells, and that Arthur Estes would man it before long.3 No source we read confirms that Estes took the post. A five-mile telephone line was also planned to reach the butte that year.3

The register and a firelookout.com listing both date the cab to 1933 and call it an L-4 design.1,2 In September 1934 a carpentry crew from the CCC camp at Odell Lake finished a garage, according to the lookout history.3

In August 1939 a mile-long fire of undetermined origin broke out on Horse Ridge. The Fuzztail Butte lookout discovered it just east of the station, and 38 CCC men from Elk Lake and Pringle Falls worked it from the west edge.3

The register and firelookout.com both say the cab was abandoned in 1952 and is now gone.1,2 The lookout history ends its entry with one word, "Removed," and gives no date.3

No source we read describes what remains on the butte today, or whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Fuzztail Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fuzztail-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fuzztail Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fuzztailbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fuzztail Butte - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fuzztail-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fuzztail Butte Lookout panoramic 6-30-1933
Fuzztail Butte Lookout panoramic 6-30-1933 (1933)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Fuzztail Butte Lookout site 2007
Fuzztail Butte Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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: 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

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