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Fire lookout · Wallowa County, Oregon

Kirkland Butte Lookout Site

Wallowa County, OR summit: a 1934 timber tower fell in 1940; a 1941 steel Aermotor was removed in the 1950s; the ground cabin is reported still on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Both towers are gone: the 1934 timber tower fell in 1940, and the 1941 steel tower was removed in the 1950s (no source gives an exact year). The ground cabin (living quarters) is reported to remain on the summit, with no source describing its condition now

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. Wallowa-Whitman National Forest land; no source read says whether the summit is open to visitors or how to reach it

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower100' treated timber tower with L-6 cab (1934); 101' steel Aermotor tower (1941)The designs: L-6, Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,244 ft (1,598 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Wallowa County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.83760, −117.13295
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-kirkland-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 4.1 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. 1926 BuiltFirst lookout on the site: a 90-foot tree platform, built around 1926Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1934 Built100-foot treated timber tower with L-6 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1936 First staffedEarliest name in the known lookout personnel list: D.L. DavisSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1940 DestroyedThe 1934 tower fell down in the windSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1940 RemovedSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  6. 1941 Replaced by a new structure101-foot steel Aermotor tower replaced the wooden one; the list names Ralph Beard in 1941Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1943 StaffedGerald Bevans and Mrs. Bevans in charge of the station, per a 1943 Wallowa County Chieftain item quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1943 and 1967
  9. 1967 Last staffedJohn and Blanche Butler, the last name on the known personnel listSource: firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1967 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: August 19, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Kirkland Butte rises to 5,244 feet in Wallowa County, Oregon, on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, about 25 miles northeast of Wallowa.1,2

The first lookout on the summit was a 90-foot tree platform, built around 1926.1,2 A 100-foot treated timber tower with an L-6 cab followed in 1934.1,2

A list of known lookout staff runs from D.L. Davis in 1936 to John and Blanche Butler in 1967.2 A 1943 newspaper item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, names Gerald Bevans and Mrs. Bevans, both members of the school faculty, as in charge of the station that year.3

The 1934 tower fell down in the wind in 1940.1,2 A 101-foot steel Aermotor tower replaced the wooden one in 1941, and it was removed in the 1950s.1 The sources do not give an exact year for that removal.

The register says the ground cabin built alongside the tower is still on the summit.1 Forest Lookouts says the tower was removed and the living quarters remain on site.3 No source we read describes the cabin's condition now. The land is Wallowa-Whitman National Forest land, but no source we read says whether the summit is open to visitors.1

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

Photos

Photo of Kirkland Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Kirkland Butte L.O.
Kirkland Butte L.OPhoto: the Dave Bula collection, via firelookout.com · source

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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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • FFLOS: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing

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: 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: 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, access, 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.