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Fire lookout · Jefferson County, Oregon

Shitike Butte Lookout

Warm Springs tribal lookout on Shitike Butte: a 90-foot tower, staffed, with access limited by tribal rules. Build year is 1935 in some sources and 1955 in the Register.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Register: access is limited by Warm Springs Tribe regulations. Cherylhill: not accessible to the public (reservation land). No source describes a public route.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2026-07)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower90-foot Aermotor tower with 7x7-foot metal cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
5,080 ft (1,548 m)
Agency
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Land
Tribal land
Location
Jefferson County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.74483, −121.61393
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-shitike-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 3.7 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 BuiltAnnual forestry report for FY1936 (quoted by Weebly): two lookouts completed in fall 1935, one an 80-foot steel tower on Shitike Butte. FireLookout.com and Cherylhill also give 1935.Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  2. No record between 1935 and 1950
  3. 1950 StaffedFireLookout.com lists a known lookout for 1950Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1955 BuiltRegister build year for the current 90-foot Aermotor tower; the Register's 51 years of service as of 2006 points to the same dateSource: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1955 and 1987
  6. 1987 AlteredTower renovated with new windows, steps, walls, ceilings and paneling; living quarters remodeledSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1987 and 2006
  8. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 15, 2006 as US 656, OR 107Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2007 FireBiddle Pass Fire (lightning starts July 12). Weebly quotes The Oregonian (August 11, 2007): the lookout was the only structure threatened.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.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.

Shitike Butte Lookout stands on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Jefferson County, Oregon, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs administer it.1 The Register gives 1955 as the build year and describes a 90-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1 The sources do not agree on that date.1,2,3 A forestry report for fiscal 1936, as quoted on a history page, says two lookouts were completed in the fall of 1935, one of them an 80-foot steel tower on Shitike Butte.3 FireLookout.com and Cherylhill also give 1935.2,4

FireLookout.com says the tower is staffed in summer and lists a known lookout for 1950.2 Cherylhill's directory, dated July 2026, lists it as staffed.4

In August 2007 a history page quoting The Oregonian reported on the Biddle Pass Fire, one of three started by lightning on July 12.3 According to that article, the lookout tower was the only structure threatened.3 A 1987 renovation gave the tower new windows, stairs, walls, ceilings and paneling, and the living quarters were remodeled.3

The Register, which registered the tower in 2006, says it had watched over the pine forests for 51 years and was still in active service.1 The Register also says access is limited by tribal regulations.1 Cherylhill lists the site as not accessible to the public.4 None of these sources describes a public route to the lookout, so anyone interested should ask the Tribes before planning a visit.1,4

  1. Shitike Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/shitike-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Shitike Butte Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/shitikebutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Shitike Butte - Forest Lookouts, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/shitike-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Oregon's Standing Lookouts, cherylhill.net, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/oregons-standing-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Shitike Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Shitike Butte in 2004
Shitike Butte in 2004 (2004)Photo: Howard Verschoor, 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1955
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1935
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1935

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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: what it is built of, height, 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, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.