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Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

SiSi Butte Lookout

Forest Service lookout in Clackamas County, Oregon: an L-4 cab from 1937-40 came down in 1977 or 1996 (sources disagree); the octagonal cab dates to 1997 and is staffed in summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerCurrent cab is octagonal and live-in on a laminated wood tower; the original was an L-4 cab on a 41-ft timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
5,520 ft (1,683 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.89940, −121.84340
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-sisi-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.

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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. 1940 BuiltL-4 cab on a 41-foot timber tower, per NHLR and FireLookout.com; the state survey gives about 1937Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, heritagedata.prd.state.or.us
  2. No record between 1940 and 1977
  3. 1977 RemovedNHLR's date, with historic parts salvaged; disputed by FireLookout.com and the 1992 condition reportSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1977 and 1992
  5. 1992 EventJensen condition report on the old tower recommended its replacementSource: heritagedata.prd.state.or.us
  6. 1996 RemovedFireLookout.com's date for the 41-foot towerSource: firelookout.com
  7. 1997 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  8. 1997 Replaced by a new structurePresent octagonal cab on a laminated wood tower, per NHLR's Built fieldSource: nhlr.org
  9. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 1, 2001 as US 368, OR 42Source: nhlr.org
  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.

SiSi Butte sits near the southern end of the Mt. Hood National Forest in Clackamas County, Oregon, where it has long been a lookout point over the Oregon Cascades.1 The register and FireLookout.com both describe an L-4 cab on a 41-foot timber tower built in 1940.1,2 The state's historic survey puts the build at about 1937, drawing on a 1984 study, so the 1940 date and the survey's date disagree by a few years.3

The register says the lookout was staffed year-round for the Aircraft Warning Service during World War II, soon after it was built.1 The sources I read do not name any particular fire that it spotted.

The sources disagree about when the old tower came down. The register dates its removal to 1977, saying the historic parts were salvaged and a new-generation fire tower took its place.1 FireLookout.com gives 1996 as the year it was removed to make way for the present tower.2 A 1992 condition report on the old tower recommended replacing it.3 That suggests the tower was still standing that year, which makes the 1977 date look doubtful, though I found no Forest Service record that settles the question.

The present cab is octagonal and sits on a laminated wood tower.1 The register gives the tower as 40 feet and dates the structure to 1997.1 FireLookout.com describes a 50-foot pole tower with an 8-sided live-in cab.2

The register lists the U.S. Forest Service as administrator, with the Clackamas River Ranger District as cooperator, and records the lookout as registered on March 1, 2001.1

Both sources say the cab is staffed in the summer, but neither gives a date for that.1,2 The sources I read do not say whether the public may go inside or climb the tower, so check with the Forest Service before you visit, and do not climb it without permission.

  1. SiSi Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/sisi-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Sisi Butte Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/sisi.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. SiSi Butte Fire Lookout, Oregon Inventory of Historic Properties Historic Resource Survey Form, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, https://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=main.loadFile&load=32546.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of SiSi Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sisi Butte with Mt. Hood
Sisi Butte with Mt. HoodPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, Ray Wyatt, and Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source
Sisi Butte L-4 tower
Sisi Butte L-4 towerPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, Ray Wyatt, and Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source
Sisi Butte L-4 tower
Sisi Butte L-4 towerPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, Ray Wyatt, and Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source
Sisi Butte in 1997
Sisi Butte in 1997 (1997)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service, Ray Wyatt, and Howard Verschoor, via firelookout.com · source

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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: 1997
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1940
    • Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill): 1996

    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, what it is built of, wartime use, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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: design, height, dates, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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.