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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Trout Creek Butte Lookout

Trout Creek Butte's 1933 steel Aermotor lookout, 86 feet tall, was on standby from 1972, burned on its summit in 2017, and is closed to climbing.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Not open to climbing. A 2020 visitor reported an inspection tag warning people not to climb, and the lower stairs had been removed.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
In May 2020 the road up was in good shape and passable by any vehicle. No source read says the public may climb the tower.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2020)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower86-foot steel Aermotor tower with 7 by 7 foot cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1933
Height
86 ft (26.2 m)
Elevation
5,438 ft (1,658 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Sisters Ranger District
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
44.24095, −121.67143
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-trout-creek-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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History

Then and now

  1. 1933 BuiltSteel Aermotor tower erected in August 1933, with help from a 20-man CCC crew. Height given as 75 ft in planning notices, 80 ft in an August 1933 newspaper item and 86 ft by the Register and firelookout.com.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 Built14-by-16-foot wood frame cabin built for living quarters.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 FireFlare-up in timber on the southeast side of Black Crater, spotted from the lookout at 11 p.m.; a crew was sent at 3 a.m. Reported in a July 17, 1935 item.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 StaffedPaul Tallone named lookout foreman for the summer.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1937 StaffedDick Compton on duty as lookout.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1940 ClosedGordon Landdon, who had staffed the lookout through the fire season, closed it in September 1940.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1948 StaffedCarl Demoy took his station as forest service lookout in July 1948.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1948 and 1972
  9. 1972 EventPlaced on standby status, per the Register.Source: nhlr.org
  10. No record between 1972 and 2003
  11. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 31, 2003 as US 506, OR 98.Source: nhlr.org
  12. 2017 BurnedMilli Fire burned much of the summit; some trees right by the lookout survived.Source: cherylhill.net
  13. 2020 Condition assessmentMay 2020 visit: status abandoned, cabin floor gone, roof largely gone, lower stairs removed, inspection tag warning against climbing.Source: cherylhill.net
  14. 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.

Trout Creek Butte rises about 6 miles southwest of Sisters in Deschutes County, Oregon, and its steel lookout has stood on the Deschutes National Forest since 1933.1,2

A Bend Bulletin notice from October 1932 said a 75-foot steel tower was planned for the butte the next spring.3 By early August 1933 a 20-man crew from the CCC camp on the Metolius River was raising the steel, and a 14-by-16-foot wood cabin for living quarters followed in 1934.3

The sources give different heights. A 1933 newspaper item called the tower 80 feet high, and the Oregon Lookouts page lists 75 feet, while the Register and firelookout.com give 86 feet.3,1,2 The Register counts it among the few 7-by-7-foot Aermotor towers left in the central Cascades.1

Seasonal lookouts staffed the tower through the 1930s and into the 1940s. The Bend Bulletin named Paul Tallone as lookout foreman in 1935 and Dick Compton as lookout in 1937.3 In July 1935 a blaze on the southeast flank of Black Crater was seen from the butte's lookout at 11 p.m., and a crew went out at 3 a.m.3 In September 1940 Gordon Landdon, who had staffed the lookout through the fire season, closed it.3

The Register says the tower has been on standby since 1972, and firelookout.com says emergency use ended in the 1970s.1,2 The 2017 Milli Fire burned across much of the summit, but some trees beside the lookout came through.4 Cheryl Hill, visiting in May 2020, listed the status as abandoned, found the cabin floor gone and much of the roof missing, and noted that the lower stairs were gone and that a warning tag on the tower said not to climb it.4 The Register's undated comments say the main cab has bullet holes and has nearly lost its paint, while the steel frame is in good condition.1

Cheryl Hill also reported that the road to the butte was in good condition and suitable for any vehicle.4 The Register lists the registration date as March 31, 2003, under US 506, and names the U.S. Forest Service's Sisters Ranger District as administrator.1 Do not climb the tower. Check with the Sisters Ranger District before planning a trip to the summit.

  1. Trout Creek Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/or/trout-creek-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Trout Creek Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/troutcreekbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Trout Creek Butte, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/trout-creek-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Trout Creek Butte - Every Lookout in Oregon (Cheryl Hill), https://cherylhill.net/firelookouts/2020/06/19/trout-creek-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Trout Creek Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Trout Creek Butte L.O.
Trout Creek Butte L.OPhoto: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, design, 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. 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. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, 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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