FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Wasco County, Oregon

Wasco Butte Lookout Site

Oregon Dept. of Forestry lookout 8 mi SW of The Dalles: 30-ft L-4 tower built 1936, replaced 1951, since removed (date unknown); 2003 photos show footings.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed per the register and firelookout.com; neither gives a removal year, and firelookout.com lists its end date as unknown

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 tower30-foot L-4 tower (1936), replaced by a 30-foot treated-timber L-4 tower (1951)The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1936
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
2,346 ft (715 m)
Agency
Oregon Department of Forestry
Land
Federal land
Location
Wasco County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.61682, −121.33563
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wasco-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 3.9 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. 1936 Built30-foot L-4 tower built per the register and firelookout.com; Rex's page quotes a May 1936 plan for a lookout house on a 30-foot towerSources: firetower.org, oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1936 and 1951
  3. 1951 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 30-foot treated-timber L-4 tower of the same heightSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1953 StaffedJanet Fry named as the lookout in a Forest Log item quoted on Rex's pageSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1960 FireEight Mile Fire reported June 21, 1960 and Pleasant Ridge Fire reported August 3, 1960, both from Wasco Butte lookoutSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1965 FireStation called in two first reportsSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1966 FireStation called in three first reports during the fire seasonSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1966 and 2010
  9. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 21, 2010Source: firetower.org
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Wasco Butte sits about 8 miles southwest of The Dalles in Wasco County, Oregon.1 A 30-foot L-4 tower went up there in 1936, under the Oregon Department of Forestry.2,3,1 A 1936 item on the lookout history page says the county had already transferred a small plot on a high point roughly seven miles due west of The Dalles, north of where the Mosier and Chenowith roads meet, for a lookout house on a 30-foot tower.3 That direction differs from the southwest bearing firelookout.com gives.

The tower was replaced in 1951 by a treated-timber L-4 tower of the same 30-foot height.2,1

A 1953 Forest Log item, quoted on the lookout history page, names Janet Fry as the person working the lookout.3

The station reported fires in 1960, including the Eight Mile Fire on June 21 and the Pleasant Ridge Fire on August 3.3 It also called in first reports in 1965 and in 1966.3

The register says the lookout has been removed, and firelookout.com says the same, but neither gives a year for it.2,1 Photo captions on the register page, dated September 28, 2003, show an old foundation and three tower leg bases at the site.2

No source we read describes access to the site today, so check with the Oregon Department of Forestry before you go.

  1. Wasco Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wascobutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wasco Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wasco-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wasco Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wasco-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Wasco Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Benchmark 9/28/2003
Benchmark 9/28/2003 (2003)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
View of Mount Hood in distance 9/28/2003
View of Mount Hood in distance 9/28/2003 (2003)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Old foundation and tower leg bases 9/28/2003
Old foundation and tower leg bases 9/28/2003 (2003)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Three tower leg bases 9/28/2003
Three tower leg bases 9/28/2003 (2003)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Looking east across the site 9/28/2003
Looking east across the site 9/28/2003 (2003)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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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, ownership, 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.