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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Shoestring Butte Lookout Site

Aermotor steel lookout on Shoestring Butte, Lake County, OR, built 1931 with a cabin; sold for scrap in 1968, and no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Sold for scrap in 1968; the towers had not been removed as of October 1968. Two listings say gone by 1968

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 7x7 cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1931
Height
73 ft (22.3 m)
Elevation
7,280 ft (2,219 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Fremont National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.38634, −120.53286
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-shoestring-butte-2

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 3.5 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. 1931 BuiltAermotor steel tower and 12x16 living quarters erected; the 73-foot height is from the 1959 inspection and firelookout.com, the register says 100 feetSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 FireCox Creek fire, early August 1931, could not be located from any lookout point; the new tower covered the areaSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1931 and 1948
  4. 1948 AlteredMajor improvements to the living quarters: new cabinets, linoleum, sealing and a new roofSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1959 Condition assessmentRegional inspection found the premises clean and orderly; guy wire, landing boards and stair fencing needed workSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1961 EventForest Supervisor memo of October 26, 1961: tower has no living quarters; if funds for the replacement cannot be made available, requests funds for a trailer house as living quartersSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1962 AlteredScreens checked and safety devices fitted to the trap door, completed June 1962Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1967 EventTwo steel towers, including Shoestring, offered to the Army in the fall of 1967 (letter of May 13, 1968 says 'last fall'); the Army did not take themSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1968 RemovedTowers sold for scrap in October 1968 but not yet removed; two listings say gone by 1968Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1968 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 10, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Shoestring Butte Lookout Site sits at 7,280 feet (2,219 meters) in Lake County, Oregon, on the Fremont National Forest.1,2 In May 1931 the summit was chosen as an auxiliary lookout site, with plans for a fifty-foot wooden tower.3 The Aermotor steel tower that went up that year is listed at 73 feet, with a 7-by-7 cab and a one-room, 12-by-16 living quarters.2,3

Sources disagree on the height. The register gives 100 feet for the steel tower.1 A 1931 entry on the Forest Lookouts page describes a seventy-five-foot tower nearing completion.3

In early August 1931 lookouts could not pin down a fire that started on Cox Creek. Though only days from completion and staffing, the tower covered the area where that fire burned.3 It was equipped with an Osborne No. 4 firefinder.3

Later records describe upkeep. A 1948 entry notes major work on the living quarters, including new cabinets, linoleum and a new roof.3 A September 1959 regional inspection judged the grounds clean and in good order.3 By October 1961 the tower had no living quarters, and the Forest Supervisor asked the Regional Forester for funds to buy a trailer house as living quarters if funds for that replacement could not be found.3 Work completed in June 1962 included checking the screens and adding safety devices to the trap door.3

In the fall of 1967 the forest offered two steel lookout towers, this one included, to the Army, which did not take them. The forest then planned to try selling the scrap metal.3 In October 1968 the Forest Engineer reported that both towers had been sold for scrap but not yet removed.3 The register and firelookout.com both give 1968 as the year the site was gone.1,2

No source we read describes what remains of the tower, cabin or summit today, or whether the public may reach the site.

  1. Shoestring Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/shoestring-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Shoestring Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/shoestringbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shoestring Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/shoestring-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Shoestring Butte Lookout
Shoestring Butte LookoutPhoto: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Shoestring Butte Lookout 1960
Shoestring Butte Lookout 1960 (1960)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, 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, type, what it is built of, status, 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. 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, 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
  4. 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.