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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Hickman Butte Lookout

Mt. Hood NF lookout in the Bull Run Watershed: 1906 camp, 1933 tower, 41-foot L-4 cab built 1952-54; staffed under a Portland Water Bureau agreement since 2007; escort-only access.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. Official escort only per NHLR; firelookout.com says closed to public entry; Cheryl Hill directory lists it as not accessible to the public. Site is in the Bull Run Watershed.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. 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 tower41-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
4,161 ft (1,268 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.41260, −121.91010
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-hickman-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 4.0 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. 1906 Eventfirst established as a tent camp lookoutSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1906 and 1928
  3. 1928 EventForest Service lookout building a new cabin for the next summer, per a Morning Oregonian item quoted on the history pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1933 Built40-foot tower with 7x7 foot cab; ground quarters built or added later (sources differ on timing)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1942 EventAircraft Warning Service station Tare 3-7 active October 7, 1942 to October 16, 1943Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1943 Eventstation inactivated October 16, 1943; site retained by the Forest Service for fire detectionSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1946 StaffedMr. Ten Eyck to man the lookout station for the summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1952 BuiltRegister dates the current classic L-4 with catwalk on a 41-foot timber towerSource: nhlr.org
  9. 1953 Replaced by a new structurefirelookout.com: present 41-foot treated timber L-4 tower replaced the older towerSource: firelookout.com
  10. 1954 Replaced by a new structurehistory page: 41-foot treated timber tower with L-4 hip-roof cab replaced an older model structureSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1954 StaffedGeorge Stamaris and his wife stationed for the summer (July 15, 1954 notice); lookout closed one Tuesday in the week reported August 26, 1954, due to unusually high humiditySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1954 and 2001
  13. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered March 1, 2001; nominated by Shannon M. HodgsonSource: nhlr.org
  14. 2007 EventPortland Water Bureau and Forest Service intergovernmental agreement to share staffing costs; lookout had relied on volunteers beforeSource: portland.gov
  15. No record between 2007 and 2022
  16. 2022 EventWater Bureau asked council in April 2022 to renew the agreement for five yearsSource: portland.gov
  17. 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.

Hickman Butte Lookout sits in the Mount Hood National Forest, inside the Bull Run Watershed that supplies Portland's drinking water.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says a tent camp lookout was first set up on the butte in 1906.1 A 40-foot tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab went up in 1933.1,3 The Register says ground-level living quarters were added later, while firelookout.com dates them to 1933.1,3 A Morning Oregonian item from September 1928, quoted on the history page, shows a Forest Service lookout there building a new cabin for the next summer.4

The tower that stands today is a 41-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cab.1,4 The dates for it do not agree. The Register says the L-4 was built in 1952, firelookout.com says it replaced the older tower in 1953, and the history page says 1954.1,3,4 Portland's water bureau says it was built in the early 1950s and has stood 45 feet above the butte for seven decades.2

During World War II the site was an Aircraft Warning Service station, from October 1942 to October 1943.4 The Forest Service kept it afterward for fire detection.4 A 1946 notice on the history page said a Mr. Ten Eyck would man the lookout that summer, and a 1954 notice named George Stamaris and his wife as the summer staff.4 In late August 1954 the lookout was closed one Tuesday during a week of unusually high humidity.4 The sources read do not name any particular fire it spotted.

In 2007 the Portland Water Bureau began sharing staffing costs with the Forest Service.2 Before that, the lookout relied on volunteers, and the bureau said that arrangement offered no guarantee of a seasoned, qualified staffer for the whole fire season.2 Since then the bureau says the same experienced person has staffed the lookout every fire season for more than 15 years, and that person is a Forest Service contractor.2

Today the lookout is staffed and remains in active service.1,5 The Register says access is only with an official escort, firelookout.com says it is closed to public entry, and the Cheryl Hill directory lists it as not accessible to the public.1,3,5 Anyone curious about it should contact the Forest Service rather than try to climb it on their own.

  1. Hickman Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/hickman-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Protecting Portland's primary source of drinking water from 4,430 feet, Portland Water Bureau (portland.gov), https://www.portland.gov/water/news/2022/4/20/protecting-portlands-primary-source-drinking-water-4430-feet (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hickman Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/hickmanbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hickman Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/hickman-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Oregon's Standing Lookouts – Every Lookout in Oregon, Cheryl Hill (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hickman Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hickman Butte in 1943
Hickman Butte in 1943 (1943)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Hickman Butte in 1953
Hickman Butte in 1953 (1953)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Hickman Butte L.O.
Hickman Butte L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Hickman Butte in 1967
Hickman Butte in 1967 (1967)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Hickman Butte in 1978
Hickman Butte in 1978 (1978)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Hickman Butte in 2011
Hickman Butte in 2011 (2011)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, and Ron Kemnow, 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1952
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1933
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1952

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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, 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.