FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Salmon Butte Lookout Site

L-4 cab on Salmon Butte, Clackamas County, OR, built 1932 on Mount Hood NF; abandoned 1942 or closed 1964; gone by 1966. No current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned 1942 per the register and firelookout.com; deactivated 1964 per the Oregon lookouts page; gone by 1966

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 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,877 ft (1,487 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Hood National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.22799, −121.93454
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-salmon-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 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. 1922 EventForest Service trail plan in The Oregon Daily Journal (June 2, 1922) mentions a fire lookout contemplated on Salmon ButteSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltL-4 cab builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1933 EventPanoramic photographs taken October 24, 1933Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 AbandonedAbandoned per the register and firelookout.com; the Oregon lookouts page gives 1964 for deactivationSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 1964
  6. 1964 ClosedLookout deactivated (Oregon lookouts page)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1966 DestroyedGone by 1966 per the register and firelookout.com; destroyed in 1966 per the Oregon lookouts pageSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1966 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 20, 2010Source: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Salmon Butte is a former lookout site in Clackamas County, Oregon, within the Mount Hood National Forest.1,2,3

In June 1922 The Oregon Daily Journal reported that the Forest Service hoped to lay about six miles of trail along the Salmon River that year. That trail was to run close to the butte, where a fire lookout was then being considered.3

An L-4 cab went up on the butte in 1932.1,2 Panoramic photographs were taken there on October 24, 1933.1,3

The sources give different end dates. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com both say the cab was abandoned in 1942.1,2 The Oregon lookouts page says it was deactivated in 1964 and destroyed in 1966.3 All three put the end no later than 1966.1,2,3

No source we checked describes what remains on the butte today, or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Salmon Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/salmon-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Salmon Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/salmonbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Salmon Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/salmon-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Salmon Butte Lookout panoramic 10-24-33
Salmon Butte Lookout panoramic 10-24-33Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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
  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: 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.