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Fire lookout · Grant County, Oregon

Ritter Butte Lookout

Grant County ODF three-story lookout in service 1950 beside US 395; staffing moved between full time and emergency use, and it was unstaffed with a camera in 2017.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
About half a mile off US 395; a 2016 group of cars drove up to the butte
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Three-story buildingThree-story enclosed tower with a 14 by 14 foot cab; the Register says wooden, a 1950 report says aluminumThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1950
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,204 ft (1,281 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Grant County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.83375, −119.07205
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-ritter-butte

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 4.1 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. 1950 BuiltODF three-story lookout put into service with a 14 by 14 foot cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1960 EventBusy season with 17 fire reportsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1960 and 1980
  4. 1980 Last staffedStaffed into the 1980s, then used for emergencies; year approximateSource: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1980 and 2006
  6. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 15, 2006, nominated by Howard VerschoorSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2012 StaffedStaffed full time again from 2012Source: firelookout.com
  8. 2016 StaffedJune 10, 2016 visit: listed as staffed, no one present, staffing expected to start the following weekSource: cherylhill.net
  9. 2017 EventNot staffed during the fire season; fire detection camera system installed; firelookout.com says back to emergency statusSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  10. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Ritter Butte Lookout stands in Grant County, Oregon, just off U.S. Highway 395.1,2 The Oregon Department of Forestry put it into service in 1950 as a three-story enclosed tower with a 14-by-14-foot cab.1,3

The sources disagree on how it was built.1,3 The Register describes a wooden tower with a garage, but a 1950 district report, quoted by Forest Lookouts, calls it an aluminum tower.1,3

Forest Lookouts quotes a 1960 season with 17 fire reports.3 Firelookout.com says the lookout was staffed into the 1980s, then used for emergencies, and was staffed full time again from 2012.2 Cheryl Hill's June 2016 visit listed it as staffed, but no one was there, and she heard that staffing would start the next week.4 A 2017 entry says it was not staffed during the fire season and that a fire detection camera system had been installed.3

The Register's entry adds that an engine is stationed at the site on high fire days.1

In June 2016, during a Friday visit by attendees of the FFLA Western Conference, a caravan of cars trekked up to the butte, according to Cheryl Hill's account.4 None of the sources says whether the public may go inside the tower.1,2,3,4 Because the Register ties the site to an engine on high fire days, check with the Oregon Department of Forestry before planning a visit.1

  1. Ritter Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/ritter-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Ritter Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/ritterbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Ritter Butte, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/ritter-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Ritter Butte, Every Lookout in Oregon (cherylhill.net), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2016/06/13/ritter-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Ritter Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Ritter Butte in 2002
Ritter Butte in 2002 (2002)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: photos, 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. Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill) Gave us: links Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill, cherylhill.net) · No licence stated; facts only (name, agency, elevation, year built, design and height, status word, links). Posts' narrative and photos are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.