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Fire lookout · Lane County, Oregon

Tipsoo Butte Lookout Site

L-4 tower on Tipsoo Butte, Willamette NF, Lane County OR; register dates it 1934, removed or burned 1965-66. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1966 per the register; destroyed in 1966 per firelookout.com; burned in 1965 per the Oregon Lookouts page

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 towerL-4 tower, per the register and firelookout.com; a 1933 report describes a lookout house on a 30-foot towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,134 ft (1,565 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Willamette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lane County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.06894, −122.19120
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-tipsoo-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. 1933 EventLookout house under construction in August 1933; a September 1933 report describes a crew building it on a 30-foot towerSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1933 StaffedElden Pepiot reported stationed at the mountain in August 1933, while the lookout house was going upSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 BuiltRegister and firelookout.com date the L-4 tower to 1934, about a mile and a half northwest of the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1949
  5. 1949 EventOctober 1949 notice says Paul B. Means and daughter Charlotte held a lookout post there; years not givenSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1949 and 1965
  7. 1965 BurnedOregon Lookouts page says the lookout burned in 1965; the other sources give 1966Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1966 Destroyedfirelookout.com says the tower was destroyed in 1966Source: firelookout.com
  9. 1966 RemovedRegister says the tower was removed in 1966Source: firetower.org
  10. No record between 1966 and 2011
  11. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 14, 2011 as US 997, OR 355; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Tipsoo Butte lookout stood in the Willamette National Forest in Lane County, Oregon, at about 5,134 feet, or 1,565 meters.1 The register places it about a mile and a half northwest of the summit, and describes it as an L-4 tower built in 1934.1,2

Newspaper items quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page suggest that work began a year earlier.1,3 An August 1933 report said a lookout house was going up, with the lumber carried in by pack mule.3 A September 1933 report described one of three work crews putting a lookout house atop a 30-foot tower.3

The August 1933 report also named Elden Pepiot as stationed at the mountain.3 An October 1949 notice says Paul B. Means and his daughter Charlotte once staffed a lookout there, but it gives no years.3

The register says the tower was removed in 1966.1 The firelookout.com page says it was destroyed that year.2 The Oregon Lookouts page gives an earlier date and a different cause, saying the lookout burned in 1965.3 The sources disagree on the year and on whether it was taken down or burned, and we could not settle which account is right. All three say the tower is gone.1,2,3

None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether visitors may go there. The register lists the U.S. Forest Service as the administering agency, and the site lies within the Willamette National Forest.1 Anyone planning a trip should ask the Forest Service about access before going.

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

Photos

Tipsoo Butte Lookout 1960
Tipsoo Butte Lookout 1960 (1960)Photo: Ron Kemnow 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, 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: 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

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