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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Sardine Butte Lookout Site

Willamette NF lookout site near Oakridge: L-5 emergency cab of 1933, replaced by an L-4 cab in 1954, disposed of by burning in 1968; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The L-4 cab was removed in 1968, by burning per Oregon Lookouts; no source describes what remains on the site

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-5 emergency cab (1933), replaced by an L-4 cab (1954)The designs: L-4, L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,215 ft (1,590 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Willamette National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.97342, −122.29862
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-sardine-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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1932 EventOregon Lookouts reprints 1932 newspaper items on planned new lookouts, Sardine butte among them; materials to be packed 12 to 15 miles on horsebackSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 BuiltL-5 emergency cab; Oregon Lookouts gives 10x10 feet, register and firelookout.com give L-5 cab in 1933Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1948
  4. 1948 StaffedReports from a forest lookout on Sardine Mountain fed an August 1948 army air search for a missing single-engine planeSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1954 Replaced by a new structure14x14 foot L-4 cab replaced the L-5 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1968 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyed; Oregon Lookouts says disposed of by burning on August 27, 1968Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1971 EventLetter to the Oakridge district ranger reported a serious debris concentration and an incomplete disposal jobSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1971 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegister lists May 12, 2011 as the registration dateSource: 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.

Sardine Butte, in the Willamette National Forest about 16 miles northeast of Oakridge in Lane County, Oregon, got a lookout cab in 1933.1,2 Newspaper items reprinted on the Oregon Lookouts page show the forest had planned new lookouts the year before, with Sardine butte on the list.3 A September 1932 notice said the materials would be packed 12 to 15 miles on horseback to the mountain.3 The register lists the U.S. Forest Service as administrator.1

The original cab was a 10-by-10 foot L-5 emergency house, according to the Oregon Lookouts page.3 In 1954 an L-4 cab replaced it, a 14-by-14 foot cab that the page calls an L-4 model 1936 ground cabin.1,2,3

In August 1948 a news item reprinted on the Oregon Lookouts page said a forest lookout on Sardine Mountain had reported a low-flying aircraft followed by a sound that might have been a crash. That report helped intensify an army air search for a small single-engine plane that vanished after refueling at Klamath Falls on August 3.3

The register says the L-4 cab was removed in 1968. firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year, and the Oregon Lookouts page says it was burned on August 27, 1968.1,2,3 A 1971 letter to the Oakridge district ranger, quoted on the same page, said photos enclosed with it showed heavy debris on the summit and that the disposal work was still incomplete.3

The register records a May 12, 2011 registration date and includes a 2007 photo of the site, credited to Ron Kemnow. No source we read describes what remains there today, or whether the public may visit.1

  1. Sardine Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/sardine-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Sardine Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/sardinebutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Sardine Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/sardine-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Sardine Butte Lookout 1954 - 1968
Sardine Butte Lookout 1954 - 1968 (1954)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sardine Butte Lookout 1954
Sardine Butte Lookout 1954 (1954)Photo: Lillian Williams, Mark Swift collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sardine Butte Lookout site 2007
Sardine Butte Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via 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, 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: 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

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