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Fire lookout · Linn County, Oregon

Maxwell Butte Lookout Site

Willamette NF L-4 cab built 1933; vandalized in 1962 and gone by 1965. Reached by a 9.6-mile hike from the Maxwell Butte Trailhead, near Detroit, Oregon.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab was removed or destroyed by 1965. No source describes what remains on the summit today.

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. Hike on Maxwell Butte Trail #3391 from the trailhead. Entry permits are required to enter the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness from the trailhead June 15 to October 15; the Forest Service page lists two types of entry permit.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
9.6 miles, 2,500 ft gain (Oregon Hikers). Drive Highway 22 east 31 miles from Detroit to Maxwell Sno-Park, then Forest Road 080 for one mile to the trailhead.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,229 ft (1,899 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Willamette National Forest (Detroit Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Linn County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.46423, −121.90166
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-maxwell-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 3.5 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. 1916 EventPatrol lookout that used a compass, c.1916 per Kemnow, before the L-4 houseSource: orww.org
  2. No record between 1916 and 1933
  3. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab. Register and Kamstra say 1933; Kemnow says c.1933Sources: firelookout.com, firetower.org, orww.org
  4. 1934 EventMay 1934 newspaper: a crew would start building a new road to the stationSource: orww.org
  5. 1939 StaffedFloyd H. Clark named as the lookout firemanSource: orww.org
  6. No record between 1939 and 1962
  7. 1962 DestroyedJuly 1962 district report: vandals destroyed the station; ranger said it may have to be rebuiltSource: orww.org
  8. 1965 RemovedRegister and Kemnow say removed; Kamstra says destroyedSources: firelookout.com, firetower.org, orww.org
  9. No record between 1965 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 11, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Maxwell Butte sits in the Willamette National Forest.1 The register says an L-4 cab was built there in 1933, and Kamstra's page gives the same year.2,1 Ron Kemnow's notes put the L-4 lookout house at about 1933 as well, and quote an October 1933 newspaper item that mentions the lookout house and its trail.3 Earlier, Kemnow records a patrol lookout that used a compass around 1916.3

A May 1934 newspaper item said a crew would start building a new road to the station.3 The register's panoramic photograph of the lookout is dated May 28, 1934.2

A July 1939 newspaper named Floyd H. Clark as the lookout fireman.3 It gave the elevation as 6,225 feet, and the distance as 40 miles from the Cascadia ranger station by highway and 5 miles by trail.3

In July 1962 Forest Service staff from the Detroit Ranger Station reported that vandals had destroyed the station, smashing its windows and fire-finder and chopping away its framing.3 A ranger said it might have to be rebuilt.3 At the time it was an emergency lookout, manned during extreme fire danger and after lightning storms.3

The register says the cab was removed in 1965.2 Kamstra's page says it was destroyed that year.1 Kemnow's notes say the lookout was removed in 1965.3 The sources differ on whether it was taken down or destroyed.

Today the butte is reached on foot.4 The route runs 31 miles east on Highway 22 from Detroit to the Maxwell Sno-Park, then a mile up Forest Road 080 to the trailhead, which gives access to Maxwell Butte Trail #3391.5 The Oregon Hikers guide describes the butte as the site of a former fire lookout, with views across the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, and lists a 9.6-mile hike with 2,500 feet of climbing.4 From June 15 to October 15, entering the wilderness from that trailhead requires entry permits, and the Forest Service page lists two types.5 We found no source that describes what remains on the summit today.

  1. Maxwell Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), http://www.firelookout.com/or/maxwellbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Maxwell Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/maxwell-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Maxwell Butte, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), copy at orww.org, http://www.orww.org/Osbornes_Project/Linn/Maxwell_Butte/Kemnow-Maxwell_Butte_20200208.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Maxwell Butte, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Maxwell_Butte (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Maxwell Butte Trailhead, Willamette National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/willamette/recreation/maxwell-butte-trailhead (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Maxwell Butte Lookout panoramic 5-28-1934
Maxwell Butte Lookout panoramic 5-28-1934 (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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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