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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Logger Butte Lookout Site

Willamette NF cupola cabin built 1926 above Oakridge; sources disagree on removal or arson in 1969. Only benches remain at the top; a replacement tower stands on Warner Ridge.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin removed or burned in 1969 (sources differ on which); a trail guide describes only a few benches at the top

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. onX describes an easy gravel road to the summit that is typically unmaintained in winter and can be subject to closures; no restriction on visiting the summit was found in the sources read

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Easy gravel road that onX says is typically unmaintained in winter

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cabinThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,783 ft (1,763 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.55274, −122.33502
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-logger-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 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. 1919 First staffedNewspaper reports fires seen from 'the lookout on Logger butte'; the structure is not describedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 StaffedHerbert Jones announced as lookout againSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1926 BuiltD-6 cupola cabin; newspapers report work started July 1926 and the house completed by August 1926Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1928 StaffedE.E. Kilpatrick, principal of Pleasant Hill high school, spent his vacation as lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1935 StaffedBuck Jones, lookout fireman on Logger ButteSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1935 and 1969
  7. 1969 RemovedFFLOS and firelookout.com say removed; Forest Lookouts and onX say it burned, caused by an arsonistSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1969 and 1986
  9. 1986 EventNew tower built on Warner Ridge about two miles southwest; a separate structure with its own record (us-or-warner-mountain)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1986 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 11, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  12. 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.

Logger Butte lies in Lane County, about 15 miles south-southeast of Oakridge, inside the Willamette National Forest.1,2

A lookout was on the butte by 1919. That year the Eugene Daily Guard reported three fires seen from "the lookout on Logger butte," all in the Umpqua district.3 The cabin that most sources describe went up in 1926. The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register gives it as a D-6 cupola cabin, built that year.1 Newspapers reported that work started in July and that the house was finished by August.3 They described it as regulation size, with sides made of glass.3

The papers name some of the people who worked the lookout. Herbert Jones was to return as lookout in 1925.3 C.A. Lord, the lookout employed there, was to do the painting in his spare time in 1926.3 In August 1928 E.E. Kilpatrick, principal of the Pleasant Hill high school, spent his vacation on the butte as lookout.3 A paper that month reported that his wife had shot and killed a cougar with her rifle on the trail to the water.3 In 1935 Buck Jones served as lookout fireman there. He was building a wind fan to draw spring water through a hose up to the station.3

The sources do not agree on how the cabin ended. The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register and firelookout.com both say the cabin was taken down in 1969.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page gives 1969 as well, but says the lookout burned, the work of an arsonist.3 onX, a trail-map service, gives the same account.4 Warner Ridge, about two miles southwest, got a new tower in 1986.1 firelookout.com says the new tower's frame was brought from Grass Mountain, with a replica cupola cabin added on top.5

According to onX, all that remains at the top is a pair of small benches, with views the guide calls amazing.4 The access road is an easy gravel road that onX says is typically unmaintained in winter and can be subject to closures.4 We found no restriction on visiting the summit in the sources we read. No source we read describes footings, a foundation or any other remains at the site, so we cannot say more about what is there. The Warner Ridge tower is further down the road.4 firelookout.com says it is staffed in summer and on the rental program in winter.5

  1. Logger Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/logger-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Logger Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/loggerbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Logger Butte, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/logger-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Warner Lookout and Logger Butte, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/oregon/warner-lookout-and-logger-butte-mgd6gkyn3zo9 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Warner Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/warner.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Logger Butte Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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

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