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Fire lookout · Marion County, Oregon

Pyramid Butte Lookout Site

Marion County, Oregon: 1934 L-4 lookout cab on Pyramid Butte; removed or destroyed in 1952 per two sources; a 1953 district report says disposed of that year.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1952 per the register and firelookout.com; a Lakes District report says it was condemned and disposed of in 1953

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
Ground-level cabL-4 lookout house, 14 by 14 feet (1934)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,095 ft (1,858 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Marion County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.76177, −121.80015
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-pyramid-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. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab (a 14x14 model) constructed on the butteSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1934 EventTrail too steep and crooked for pack horses to carry lumber to the top (August 19, 1934 newspaper traveler)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1952
  4. 1952 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1953 RemovedLakes District historical report: condemned and disposed of during the year (conflicts with the 1952 date)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1953 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 20, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 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.

Pyramid Butte, in Marion County, got an L-4 lookout house in 1934.1,2 The register puts the summit at 6,095 feet, or 1,858 meters.1 Firelookout.com places the butte in the Mt. Hood National Forest.3 The house was a 14-by-14 model.4

In August 1934 a newspaper writer passed the butte shortly after leaving Breitenbush Lake.4 The writer called the trail one of the steepest and most crooked in the country, and said it was easy to see why pack horses could not take lumber to the top.4 A panorama photo entry for the butte is dated June 27, 1934.4

The register says the cab was removed in 1952.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed in 1952.3 A Lakes District historical report covering 1953, as quoted on a collection page, says the lookout was condemned and disposed of that year.4

The sources consulted do not describe what remains on the butte today or say whether the public can reach it.

  1. Pyramid Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/pyramid-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Oregon Lookouts (by County), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/or/or-co/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pyramid Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/pyramidbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Pyramid Butte - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/pyramid-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

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