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Fire lookout · Hood River County, Oregon

Lost Lake Butte Lookout Site

Mt. Hood NF lookout: 1920s wooden tower, 1949 L-4 replacement, destroyed in the October 1962 Columbus Day storm; Oregon Hikers says only the foundation remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in the October 1962 Columbus Day storm and not rebuilt; cabin burned in the 1970s; Oregon Hikers says only the foundation remains

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. Sources describe a popular hike to the summit; the lake area is reached past an entry booth on Road 13 (SummitPost). No closure reported.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 2.3 miles on foot from Lost Lake Trailhead (Oregon Hikers); SummitPost gives 1.9 miles and 1,330 feet of climb from the lake shore.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot wooden tower with 7x7 cab and ground cabin (1920s); 41-foot treated-timber L-4 tower (1949)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1920
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
4,468 ft (1,362 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Mt. Hood National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Hood River County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.49577, −121.79585
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-lost-lake-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 3.5 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. 1920 BuiltOriginal 40-foot wooden tower with 7x7 cab and ground cabin; sources give only the 1920s, so 1920 is a decade placeholderSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  2. No record between 1920 and 1949
  3. 1949 Replaced by a new structure41-foot treated-timber L-4 tower (register, firelookout.com); a district history quoted on Weebly dates the contract build to February 7, 1950Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1958 EventLookout lost its roof to high winds in October, per a district history quoted under a February 9, 1959 entrySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1959 ClosedClosed except as an emergency lookout (district history, February 9, 1959 entry)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1962 DestroyedTower destroyed in the Columbus Day storm of October 12, 1962; not rebuiltSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  7. 1963 Removed1963 annual report says the tower was salvaged and its material and hardware were intended for Postage Stamp Lookout; this does not match the destroyed accountSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1970 BurnedOriginal log cabin burned in the 1970s; sources give only the decade, so 1970 is a decade placeholderSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonhikers.org
  9. No record between 1970 and 2010
  10. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 26, 2010 with Former Fire Lookout SitesSource: firetower.org
  11. 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.

Lost Lake Butte is an ancient shield volcano in Hood River County, near Lost Lake.1,2,3 It sits inside the Mount Hood National Forest.1 Oregon Hikers says the butte's outlook made it a good place for a fire lookout.2

A 40-foot wooden tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab went up in the 1920s, with a ground cabin for the people who worked there.4,1,2 The register says a 41-foot treated-timber tower replaced it in 1949.4,1 A district history quoted on Weebly dates the contract build to February 7, 1950, so the sources do not agree on the year.5

By February 1959, a district history said the lookout was closed except for emergencies, and that high winds the previous October had taken its roof.5

The Columbus Day storm of October 12, 1962 destroyed the tower, according to the register, firelookout.com and Oregon Hikers.4,1,2,6 Willamette Heritage Center notes that the storm was an extra tropical cyclone rather than a hurricane, though the register and firelookout.com still call it a hurricane.4,1,6 A 1963 annual report, quoted on Weebly, says the tower was salvaged and its material and hardware were meant for Postage Stamp Lookout.5 That account does not match the storm story, and these sources do not settle what happened to the tower's parts. The original cabin burned in the 1970s.4,1,2

Oregon Hikers says the only remains today are the foundation.2 The summit is about 1.9 miles from the lake, with 1,330 feet of climb, according to SummitPost.3 Oregon Hikers puts the walk at 2.3 miles from Lost Lake Trailhead and calls it a popular hike.2 SummitPost says the entry booth is six miles along Road 13.3 Neither Oregon Hikers nor SummitPost reports a closure of the summit.2,3

  1. Lost Lake Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/lostlakebutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lost Lake Butte, Oregon Hikers field guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Lost_Lake_Butte (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lost Lake Butte, Summit Post, https://summitpost.org/lost-lake-butte/249074 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lost Lake Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/lost-lake-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Lost Lake Butte, FOREST LOOKOUTS (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/lost-lake-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Columbus Day Storm: "Worst Disaster Ever": October 12, 1962, Willamette Heritage Center, https://www.willametteheritage.org/columbus-day-flood/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lost Lake Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
After Columbus Day 1962 hurricane
After Columbus Day 1962 hurricane (1962)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, height, 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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