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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Myers Butte Lookout Site

Clackamas County butte tower south of Molalla: 1936 district records give the build year (register says 1947); destroyed with footings left by 1970; sold 1968.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed; a 1970 National Geodetic Survey recovery note says the footings were still in place. Abandoned 1965; site sold 1968.

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 tower90-foot tower with an L-4 cab and a cabin (register); 90-foot wooden L-6 tower with a cabin (firelookout.com); 100-foot creosoted ring-connected tower with a 7x7 cab (1936 district records)The designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
2,704 ft (824 m)
Agency
Clackamas County, Oregon (register); Oregon Department of Forestry, Clackamas-Marion FPA (district pages and firelookout.com)
Land
Unknown
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.95955, −122.50861
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-myers-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 3.7 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. 1936 BuiltConstruction of a 100-foot creosoted tower with a 7x7 cab started July 15, 1936; the district annual report credits the CCC with the tower, a one-room station and a garageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1947 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  3. No record between 1947 and 1962
  4. 1962 EventWinds of the Columbus Day storm destroyed the 7x7 cabSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1963 Replaced by a new structureA new 7x7 cab was put on the towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1965 AbandonedRegister and firelookout.com both say the lookout was abandoned in 1965Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  7. 1965 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "abandoned 1965".Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 1968 EventSite sold for $5,600 according to the district annual reportSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1970 Condition assessmentNGS recovery note: tower destroyed, footings in placeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1970 and 2019
  11. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 18, 2019Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Myers Butte sits about 12 miles south of Molalla in Clackamas County, and it once carried a fire lookout.1,2 A 1936 item in The Forest Log said a 92-foot tower and guard station were planned there.3 Work on a 100-foot creosoted tower with a 7-by-7 cab started on July 15, 1936, and the district annual report credits the Civilian Conservation Corps with the tower, a one-room station and a garage.3

The records disagree about the build date. The register dates the tower to 1947 and firelookout.com to 1940, and both give its height as 90 feet, while the 1936 district records say 100 feet.2,1,3 The register lists Clackamas County as the administrator. firelookout.com and the district reports name the Oregon Department of Forestry instead.2,1,3

In 1962 the Columbus Day storm's winds destroyed the 7-by-7 cab, and a replacement went onto the tower in 1963.3

The register and firelookout.com both date the abandonment to 1965.2,1 The district annual report says the site was sold for $5,600 in 1968.3 A 1970 National Geodetic Survey recovery note says the tower had been destroyed, but its footings were still in place.3

No source we read describes the butte today, and none says whether visitors can reach it. The last physical record we found is that 1970 note about the footings.3

  1. Myers (Meyers) Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/myersbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Myers Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/myers-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Myers Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/myers-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, 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: 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, 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.