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Fire lookout · Wallowa County, Oregon

Wood Butte Lookout Site

Wallowa-Whitman NF pole lookout on Wood Butte: a 40-foot L-4 tower dated 1935, staffed into the 1960s, removed or destroyed in 1966.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1966; no source read 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 tower40-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1932
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
4,422 ft (1,348 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Wallowa County, Oregon
Coordinates
45.77018, −117.44488
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-wood-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 3.6 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. 1927 EventPer diem lookout J.W. Wood used a high point near his home; before he died he asked that half an acre be deeded to the Forest ServiceSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltOregon Lookouts page: a new lookout tower was constructed (conflicts with the 1935 register date)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 Built40-foot pole L-4 towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1936 StaffedRay Knudson listed as lookoutSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1941 StaffedHarold Lamb listed as lookoutSource: firelookout.com
  6. 1942 StaffedMarvin Wiggans listed as lookout (1942-1943)Source: firelookout.com
  7. 1953 Condition assessmentForest note calls the lookout not satisfactory and says it should be abandoned, with a lookout placed in section 30Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1963 StaffedSteven Crow listed as lookout; last staffing entry on firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  9. 1966 EventVandals broke two windows in August while the tower was unoccupiedSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1966 RemovedRegister says removed; firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. 1966 StaffedManned only after lightning storms and during extreme fire weatherSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1966 and 2011
  13. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 26, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  14. 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.

Wood Butte sits in Wallowa County, in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, on the Powwatka Ridge road.1,2 A note quoted on the Oregon Lookouts page, from April 1927, says J.W. Wood, a per diem lookout, had used a rise near his home as a lookout site, and that before he died he asked that half an acre there be transferred to the Forest Service.2

The date of the tower is disputed. The register and firelookout.com both give 1935 for a 40-foot pole L-4 tower.1,3 The Oregon Lookouts page records a new tower in 1932, and under 1936 it notes that building "this tower" took 699 man-hours of effort.2 This story uses 1935, the date the register and firelookout.com both give.

Firelookout.com lists the people who staffed it: Ray Knudson in 1936, Harold Lamb in 1941, and Marvin Wiggans in 1942 and 1943, with others through 1963.3

In 1953 a note on the Oregon Lookouts page calls the lookout not satisfactory and says it should be abandoned, with a lookout placed in section 30 instead.2 By 1966 the lookout was staffed only when lightning storms or extreme fire weather called for it.2 That August vandals broke two windows while the tower stood empty, a report in the Wallowa County Chieftain said.2

The register records the tower as removed in 1966.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.3

No source I read describes what, if anything, stands at the site now, and I found none that says whether visitors can reach the point. The register's latest picture is a 2009 photo, and its caption does not say what can still be seen.1

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

Photos

Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935
Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935 (1935)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935
Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935 (1935)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935
Wood Butte Lookout panoramic 8-14-1935 (1935)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wood Butte Lookout site 2009
Wood Butte Lookout site 2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, 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: 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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