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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Lava Butte Lookout

A Forest Service lookout on a Deschutes cinder cone, first built in 1931; the 1998 reproduction has a visitor center and is reached by shuttle in summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. First floor is a visitor center. Summer shuttle runs from the Lava Lands Visitor Center. The sources read do not say whether the cab itself is open to visitors.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Shuttle runs up Red Cinder Road from early May to mid October; hiking the road is possible all year; a rim trail about 0.35 miles long circles the top.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story building1998 reproduction of a gable-roofed L-4 cab with catwalk; first floor is a visitor centerThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
500 ft (152.4 m)
Elevation
4,958 ft (1,511 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.91785, −121.35633
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lava-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. 1931 BuiltFirst Forest Service lookout on the summit, an L-4 groundhouseSources: en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  2. 1933 EventSteep single-lane road built up the cone to the summitSource: en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1933 and 1957
  4. 1957 Replaced by a new structureLarger lookout with a slant-window flat-top cab replaced the 1931 towerSources: en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  5. 1962 AlteredEnlarged to hold a small visitor center and museum on the first floor (Wikipedia). Firelookout.com dates the first-floor expansion to 1960Sources: en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1962 and 1997
  7. 1997 RemovedStructure dismantled to make way for a new lookout and visitor centerSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1998 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  9. 1998 RebuiltCurrent third structure on the site, a reproduction of a gable-roofed L-4 cab with catwalkSources: en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  10. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register as Number 100Source: nhlr.org
  11. 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.

Lava Butte is a cinder cone in central Oregon, about nine miles south-southwest of Bend.1,2 The Forest Service built the first fire lookout on its summit in 1931, an L-4 groundhouse.1,2,3 In early 1933 a steep, single-lane road was built up the cone to the summit.1

Sources differ on the years that followed. The register says the 1957 replacement had a slant-window flat-top cab with a visitor center downstairs.3 Firelookout.com describes a two-story flat cab that year and dates the first-floor visitor-center expansion to 1960.2 Wikipedia says the 1957 lookout was enlarged in 1962 to hold a small visitor center and museum.1

That structure came down in 1997 to clear the way for a new lookout and visitor center.2 The current tower, the third on the site, went up in 1998 as a gable-roofed L-4 reproduction with a catwalk.3,1,2

The register listed the lookout on September 2, 2003, as its Number 100, and noted that Oregon became the first state to reach 100 stations.3 The register also says it is among the most visited lookouts in the country.3 Firelookout.com also says Lava Butte has been the first place to report more fires on the Deschutes than all other lookouts there.2

None of the three pages says who staffs the tower or whether anyone is posted there now.1,2,3

Today the register describes the station as a visitor center for the Lavalands National Monument, while Wikipedia places the butte within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.3,1 Between early May and mid-October, a shuttle takes visitors from the Lava Lands Visitor Center up Red Cinder Road to the lookout.1 Hiking the road is an option all year, and a rim trail about 0.35 miles long circles the top.1 Check the shuttle dates with the Forest Service before you go, since the dates here come from an encyclopedia.

  1. Lava Butte, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_Butte (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Lava Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lavabutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Lava Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/lava-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lava Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lava Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lava Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lava Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lava Butte in 1933
Lava Butte in 1933 (1933)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1948
Lava Butte in 1948 (1948)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1950
Lava Butte in 1950 (1950)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1950
Lava Butte in 1950 (1950)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1950
Lava Butte in 1950 (1950)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1959
Lava Butte in 1959 (1959)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in the 1990's
Lava Butte in the 1990's (1990)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 1999
Lava Butte in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lava Butte in 2013
Lava Butte in 2013 (2013)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, the U.S. Forest Service, Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Lava Butte Lookout
Photo: Another Believer, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.