FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clackamas County, Oregon

Wolf Camp Butte Lookout Site

Wolf Camp Butte wooden L-4 lookout over the Salmon River, Clackamas County, Oregon; removed or destroyed in 1955; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1955 per the register; firelookout.com says destroyed that year; the Oregon Lookouts page gives no date

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 towerwooden L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,701 ft (1,433 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clackamas County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.23901, −121.81435
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wolf-camp-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1955 RemovedRegister says removed in 1955; firelookout.com says destroyed in 1955Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1955 and 2010
  3. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered September 21, 2010; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  4. 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 Wolf Camp Butte lookout was a wooden L-4 tower built in the 1930s, overlooking the Salmon River in Clackamas County, Oregon.1 The register places it in the Mount Hood National Forest.1 A photograph in the register is captioned 1940.1

The register says the tower was removed in 1955.1 firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2 The Oregon Lookouts page lists it only as removed, with no date.3 The sources do not agree on how the tower ended, so the story keeps both descriptions.

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register added the site on September 21, 2010, with Ray Kresek as nominator.1

PeakVisor places the summit inside the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness of the Mount Hood National Forest.4 We found no source that describes what, if anything, is left at the summit now, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Wolf Camp Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/wolf-camp-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Wolf Camp Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/wolfcampbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Wolf Camp Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), oregonlookouts.weebly.com, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/wolf-camp-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Wolf Camp Butte, PeakVisor, https://peakvisor.com/peak/wolf-camp-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Wolf Camp Butte Lookout 1940
Wolf Camp Butte Lookout 1940 (1940)Photo: Tim Roberts collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wolf Camp Butte Lookout 1930 - 1955
Wolf Camp Butte Lookout 1930 - 1955 (1930)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via 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, 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: 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, status, agency, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.