Fire lookout · Crook County, Oregon
Paulina Butte Lookout Site
Crook County, OR 75-ft Aermotor steel tower of 1933, abandoned 1964 and removed 1968; a 2013 forum visit found footings and remains of the earlier tree lookout.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1964 and removed in 1968; a visitor's April 2013 forum post describes footings from the steel tower and remains of the old tree lookout
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower75-foot Aermotor steel tower with 7x7 steel cab, replacing a 1920s tree platform and ground cabinThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- 75 ft (22.9 m)
- Elevation
- 5,568 ft (1,697 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Crook County, Oregon
- Coordinates
- 44.32392, −119.97991
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-or-paulina-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 4.0 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
- 1933 Built75-foot Aermotor steel tower with 7x7 steel cab erected, replacing a tree platform and ground cabin of the 1920sSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1936 StaffedFisher Logan and wife moved to the station for the fire season (Central Oregonian, as quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1937 StaffedFisher Logan reported as Forest Service fire lookout at Paulina Butte (Central Oregonian)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1937 and 1952
- 1952 StaffedJoan Loosley, a home economics student at Oregon State College, spent the summer as lookout (Herald and News)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1964 AbandonedTower and cabin abandonedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- 1968 RemovedTower and ground cabin removedSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
- No record between 1968 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 24, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
- 2013 EventOregon Hikers forum visit (post dated April 28, 2013) found footings from the steel tower and the remains of the old tree lookoutSource: oregonhikers.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Paulina Butte sits in the Ochoco National Forest, in Crook County, Oregon.1 The first lookout here was a tree platform about 100 feet up, with a cabin on the ground for living quarters, put up in the 1920s.2 In 1933 a 75-foot Aermotor steel tower with a 7x7 steel cab took its place, and living quarters were in a cabin near the base.1,2
Newspaper items from the 1930s and 1950s name a few of the people who worked the station.2 In 1936 the Central Oregonian reported that Fisher Logan and his wife had moved up for the fire season, and in 1937 that Logan was the Forest Service fire lookout there.2 In 1952 the Herald and News said Joan Loosley, a home economics student at Oregon State College, would spend the summer as lookout.2
The register and firelookout.com both say the tower was abandoned in 1964 and removed in 1968.1,3 The Forest Lookouts site also lists the 1968 removal.2
A visitor's post on the Oregon Hikers forum, dated April 28, 2013, places the site 42 miles east of Prineville.4 The writer saw footings from the steel tower and the remains of the old tree lookout.4 No other source we read describes the site today, and none says whether it is open to visitors or how to reach it.
- Paulina Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/paulina-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Paulina Butte - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/paulina-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Paulina Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/paulinabutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fire Lookout Towers & Guard Stations, Oregon Hikers Forum, https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14420&start=30 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, 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
- 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1076 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Fire Lookout Towers & Guard Stations (forum post by shawjr, April 28, 2013) (Oregon Hikers Forum) (opens another site)
- FFLA Oregon lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Paulina Butte on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Paulina Butte on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.