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Fire lookout · Klamath County, Oregon

Round (Jimenez) Butte Lookout Site

Also known as Round Butte

Klamath County Aermotor steel lookout, about 100 ft, built 1935-36, abandoned by the state 1974 and removed in 1991 or 1992. Sources disagree on dates and agency.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed 1991 or 1992 per the sources; a Forgotten Oregon group post says only remains are left, without describing them

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 towerAermotor steel tower with a cab at the top and a 12x16 ft living cabin on the groundThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
5,466 ft (1,666 m)
Agency
Klamath FPA (Register); Klamath Indian Agency and Winema National Forest (Oregon Lookouts, Klamath County blog)
Land
Federal land
Location
Klamath County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.07641, −121.68453
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-round-jimenez-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 3.8 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. 1935 BuiltRegister and FireLookout.com date the 100 ft steel tower to 1935; Oregon Lookouts dates the living cabin to 1935Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 BuiltOregon Lookouts and the Klamath County blog date the Aermotor steel tower to 1936 (107 ft and 101 ft respectively)Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, klamathlookouts.blogspot.com
  3. 1942 FireTwo-acre fire at the Chiloquin Lumber Company's North Marsh unit, discovered from the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1942 and 1961
  5. 1961 EventUnder the termination act, the KFPA took over operating and maintaining the lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1968 FireSmoke reported between Highway 97 and the railroad; a KFPA fighter found and put out a burning stumpSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1974 AbandonedState abandoned the lookout; at that time it was under Oregon Department of Forestry controlSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1974 and 1991
  9. 1991 RemovedKlamath County blog gives removal in 1991Source: klamathlookouts.blogspot.com
  10. 1992 RemovedRegister says removed in 1992; FireLookout.com says destroyed in 1992Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. No record between 1992 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 7, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  13. 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.

Round (Jimenez) Butte in Klamath County once carried a 100-foot steel tower with a cab at the top.1,2 The Register says it was built in 1935, with three identical top sections and a middle section turned upside down, apparently to raise the cab.1 FireLookout.com also dates it to 1935.2

Oregon Lookouts gives a different order of events: a 12-by-16-foot living cabin in 1935 and a 107-foot Aermotor steel tower in 1936, both built by a CCC-ID crew.3 The Klamath County blog gives the tower as 101 feet and dates it to 1936.4 Both list the lookout as Round Butte, not Round (Jimenez) Butte, so their link to this site rests on location and dates rather than a stated match.3,4

Oregon Lookouts lists the site under the Klamath Indian Agency and Winema National Forest, while the Register names the Klamath FPA as administrator.3,1 In 1961, under the termination act, the KFPA took over running and maintaining the lookout.3

The lookout saw some action. In August 1942 a two-acre fire at the Chiloquin Lumber Company's North Marsh unit was discovered from the lookout.3 In July 1968 the lookout reported smoke between Highway 97 and the railroad, and a KFPA fighter found a burning stump beside an abandoned campfire.3

The state abandoned the lookout by 1974, when the Oregon Department of Forestry controlled it.3 The Register says the tower was removed in 1992, FireLookout.com says it was destroyed that year, and the Klamath County blog gives 1991.1,2,4

A post in the Forgotten Oregon Facebook group says only remnants of the lookout are left, but the text we could read does not say what those remnants are.5 No source describes the site's access or anything else at the site today.

  1. Round (Jimenez) Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/round-jimenez-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Round (Jimenez) Butte Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/roundbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Round Butte - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/round-butte1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Klamath County Fire Lookouts, Klamath County Fire Lookouts blog, https://klamathlookouts.blogspot.com/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Forgotten Oregon group post, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForgottenOregon/posts/2755562034711717/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Round (Jimenez) Butte Lookout Site
Photo: 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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: design, height, ownership, 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, 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.