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Fire lookout · Douglas County, Oregon

Silver Butte

Douglas County fire-patrol lookout near Riddle, built 1923, rebuilt 1942, torn down in June 2012 and replaced by a camera.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed June 4, 2012 for advanced decay; a camera replaced it, per firelookout.com and a 2013 blog post

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 towerlog lookout house first; a 14x14 standard house on a tower from 1942 (28 ft in the 1942 report; firelookout.com gives 20 ft and calls it an L-4)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
25 ft (7.6 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Douglas County Fire Patrol association, later the Douglas Forest Protective Association (Oregon Department of Forestry)
Land
Unknown
Location
Douglas County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.85893, −123.37834
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-silver-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 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. 1923 BuiltJuly 19, 1923 newspaper item: station established and building under construction; firelookout.com gives 1924Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1923 First staffeda lookout was to begin work immediately, per the July 1923 reportSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 StaffedNeil Tripp took the post for the summerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1930 StaffedQuinlan Brown took up duties as lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1933 StaffedThomas Lawson spent the summer as lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1934 Firelookout William Brown reported a 10:30 p.m. fire; the report calls it and a midnight fire from the year before incendiarySource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1936 Condition assessmentDouglas Forest Protective Association annual report: the log lookout house was of little valueSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1937 Condition assessmentannual report recommends a new house on a 25-foot towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1942 EventArmy requested a year-round AWS observation post; site ran from October 14, 1942 to October 16, 1943Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1942 Replaced by a new structure14x14 standard house on a 28-foot tower built, mostly by CCC crews; firelookout.com gives a 20-foot L-4Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  11. 1944 StaffedMarge Stephens employed by the Douglas Forest Protective Association as fore lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1944 and 1960
  13. 1960 Alterednew-type lookout house roof installed at $428.53Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  14. No record between 1960 and 2012
  15. 2012 Removedtower removed June 4, 2012 for advanced decay; Oregon Department of Forestry replaced it with camerasSources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, cherylhill.net
  16. 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.

Silver Butte is in Douglas County, and newspapers of the 1920s and 1930s often called the same summit Silver Peak.1 The reports disagree about where it lies from Riddle: a 1923 item puts it nine miles west of town, while a 1944 item says southeast.1 A different former lookout with the same name stood in Grant County, and the former lookout register lists it separately.2

In July 1923 a Forest Service man and a county fire-patrol man set up a fire finder and a telephone on the summit, and a lookout was to begin work at once while the building went up.1 Firelookout.com dates the first station to 1924 and describes a log cupola cabin.3

By 1936 the log house had depreciated so far that the Douglas Forest Protective Association's annual report called it of little value, and the 1937 report asked for a new house on a 25-foot tower.1 In 1942 a 14-by-14 standard house went up on a 28-foot tower, mostly built by Civilian Conservation Corps crews.1 Firelookout.com instead gives a 20-foot L-4 for that year, so the height is disputed.3

Named lookouts appear through the 1920s and 1930s, among them Neil Tripp in 1928, Quinlan Brown in 1930 and Thomas Lawson in 1933.1 In 1934 lookout William Brown reported a fire at 10:30 at night, and the report called it and a midnight fire from the year before incendiary.1

In 1942 the Army asked for a year-round observation post here, and the site ran as an AWS post from October 14, 1942 until October 16, 1943.1 In 1944 the Douglas Forest Protective Association had Marge Stephens working as fore lookout.1 A new roof went on in 1960 for $428.53.1

Firelookout.com says the station still had summer staff into the late 2000s.3 The tower came down on June 4, 2012, because of advanced decay.1 A 2013 blog post says the Oregon Department of Forestry took it down the previous June and put cameras in its place.4

Firelookout.com says an automated detection camera took the lookout's place.3 No source describes what remains of the tower on the summit, or whether the public can reach the spot.1,3,4

  1. Silver Butte - Forest Lookouts, Oregon Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/silver-butte1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Silver Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/silver-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Silver Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/silverbutte65.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Silver Butte lookout gone, Every Lookout in Oregon, https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2013/06/14/silver-butte-lookout-gone/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 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: 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, 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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