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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Johnson Butte Lookout Site - UNF

Also known as Johnson Butte

A 10-foot pole tower with a 10-by-10 cab was built in 1933 and removed in 1965. The sources disagree on the cab design; none describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1965; no source describes what remains at the site.

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 tower10-by-10 Aladdin L-5 cabin on a 10-foot round fir timber tower (Oregon page); register and firelookout.com say 10-foot pole L-4 towerThe designs: L-4, L-5
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
3,362 ft (1,025 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Umpqua National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.43305, −122.63432
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-johnson-butte-lookout-site-unf

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 3.6 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. 1933 Built10-foot pole tower with a 10-by-10 cab; a 1933 Roseburg Chieftain item said the CCC would build it before snowSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1965
  3. 1965 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1965 and 2011
  5. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 19, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  6. 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.

The Umpqua National Forest site lies in Douglas County, at 3,362 feet, on the northwest edge of a long summit ridge.1

A September 14, 1933 Roseburg Chieftain item said the Civilian Conservation Corps planned to build a 10-by-10 lookout ahead of the snowfall.2 The Oregon page describes the cabin as a 10-by-10 Aladdin L-5 erected on a 10-foot round fir timber tower and anchored by cables.2

The register and firelookout.com both date the tower to 1933 and call it a 10-foot pole L-4 tower, so the sources differ on the design.1,3 The register says it was removed in 1965, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,3 The Oregon page says only that it was removed.2

firelookout.org's county list marks the site as gone.4 I found no source that describes what remains at the summit today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Johnson Butte Lookout Site - UNF, Former Fire Lookout Sites register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/johnson-butte-lookout-site-unf/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Johnson Butte, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/johnson-butte1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Johnson Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/johnsonbutte63b.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oregon fire lookouts list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Johnson Butte Lookout 1941
Johnson Butte Lookout 1941 (1941)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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: design, 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, height, 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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