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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Strawberry Butte Lookout Site

Lake County, OR Fremont NF steel lookout tower erected 1933 by a CCC crew; gone by 1973 per the Register and firelookout.com; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and firelookout.com say the tower and cabin were gone by 1973; no source describes what remains at 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
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40 all-steel lookout tower with a 7 x 7 steel cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
107 ft (32.6 m)
Elevation
6,039 ft (1,841 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.09281, −120.86974
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-strawberry-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 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. 1930 EventCrow's nest first (Register); an emergency lookout was staffed after lightning storms (1930 newspaper quoted by Forest Lookouts)Sources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltGround cabin (12 x 16 house and 16 x 18 garage) completed by fall 1932 as an unemployment relief project; 107-foot steel tower approvedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 BuiltEight men from Camp Ingram CCC erected the 100-foot steel tower in August 1933; Register and firelookout.com date the tower to 1933Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1960
  5. 1960 StaffedRalph Turner returned to the lookout in July 1960 after manning it in 1957 and 1958Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1969 Condition assessment1969 Lookout Inventory: used only for emergency fire detection; 102-foot steel tower with 49 sq ft cab. A district memo asked that the cabin be condemned and destroyedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1972 Condition assessmentCivil engineer's condition survey: tower in good shape; house and garage sold but not removedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1973 RemovedTower and ground cabin described as gone by 1973; the sources do not say how they were removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1973 and 2011
  10. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 10, 2011 as US 1046, OR 404; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  11. 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.

The Strawberry Butte lookout stood in Lake County, Oregon, on the Fremont National Forest.1,2 The Register says a crow's nest came first, in 1930.1 A 1930 newspaper item quoted by Forest Lookouts describes a man placed on an emergency lookout here after lightning storms.3

In 1932 the forest approved a 107-foot steel tower, and a ground cabin was finished that fall as part of an unemployment relief project.3 In August 1933 eight men from the Camp Ingram CCC camp were sent to erect the 100-foot steel tower.3 The Register and firelookout.com both date the tower to 1933 and give its height as 101 feet.1,2 It was an all-steel Aermotor LS-40 model with a 7-by-7 cab.3

The sources do not agree on the height. Forest Lookouts quotes 100 feet in 1933 and 1959, 102 feet in 1969, and 107 feet to the floor, or 110 feet to the fire finder, in 1972.3

In 1940 the lookout was an official fire-weather station, and its observations were phoned to the Bly Ranger Station at 4:15 p.m. daily.3 In July 1960 a newspaper reported that Ralph Turner, an art teacher, was returning to the lookout after manning it in 1957 and 1958.3

By 1969 the lookout was used only for emergency fire detection. That year a district memo asked for the cabin to be condemned and destroyed. A letter from the Lakeview District Ranger said the garage and toilet could be torn down.3

A 1972 condition survey found the steel tower in good shape. It also noted that the house and garage were understood to have been sold but not removed.3 The Register and firelookout.com both say the tower and its ground cabin were gone by 1973.1,2 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the land is open to visitors.1,2

  1. Strawberry Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/strawberry-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Strawberry Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/strawberrybutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Strawberry Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/strawberry-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Strawberry Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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.

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, 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
  5. 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.