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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Long Creek Butte Lookout Site

Grant County L-4 pole tower built 1933 on the Malheur NF; removal date unknown. No source found describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed, date unknown (the register says it is unclear when); no source describes the site today

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 towerL-4 cab on a 20-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,206 ft (1,892 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Malheur National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.66527, −119.04496
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-long-creek-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.8 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 Built20-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, completed 1933; construction was reported as about to begin in July 1932Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1948
  3. 1948 AlteredCreosote-treated tower placed under the existing house, per a Malheur Historical Record entry that calls the site 'Long Creek Mountain'Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1948 and 2011
  5. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 24, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  6. 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.

Long Creek Butte rises in Grant County, about 19 miles north-northwest of John Day, on the Malheur National Forest.1,2 A 1936 Forest Service description of a survey station on its summit places the butte about five miles southeast of the Long Creek post office.3

In 1931 a local paper reported that a forest road crew would soon build a road to the butte.3 In July 1932 the same paper reported that construction of a lookout station was about to begin.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register describes a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, built in 1933.1 Forest Lookouts gives 1933 as the year the tower was completed.3

The register says the poles that formed the legs were later swapped for treated timber.1 In 1948 a new tower treated with creosote was set under the existing house, according to a Malheur Historical Record entry quoted on Forest Lookouts. That entry calls the site Long Creek Mountain, and the sources do not say whether it is the same lookout.3

The register cannot say when the tower came down.1 Forest Lookouts lists it as removed but gives no date.3

The 1936 survey description says the marker sat in a foundation block at the base of one tower leg, and that roads ran up to the top.3 No source we read says whether that block, the marker or any road survives today. We found no source describing who may visit the site now, so we cannot say what a visitor would find there.

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

Photos

Photo of Long Creek Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.