Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington
Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site (now at Reynaud)
Also known as Reynaud
1934 L-4 cab from Buttermilk Butte, Okanogan County; sold to a private party and moved to a ranch up the Twisp River in 1951; association lists it standing at Reynaud.
- Standing
- Private land
- Verified
Private land
No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Cab sold to a private party in 1951 and moved to a ranch; the sources describe no public access
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service (original site)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Okanogan County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 48.37193, −120.20422
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-buttermilk-butte-lookout-site-at-reynaud
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.
Downloads about 3.7 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
- 1934 BuiltL-4 cab built on Buttermilk ButteSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
- No record between 1934 and 1951
- 1951 MovedCab sold to a private party and moved to a ranch 4 miles up the Twisp RiverSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
- Date unknown MovedMoved from Buttermilk Butte to Reynaud.Source: FFLA
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Buttermilk Butte lookout was a cab set on the ground rather than a tower.1,2 The L-4 cab was built on the butte in 1934, about 10 miles southwest of Twisp in the Okanogan National Forest.1,3 The Forest Lookout Association lists the original butte as a ground site, now gone.2
In 1951 a private buyer took the cab, and it ended up at a ranch four miles up the Twisp River.1 A separate relocation list gives the same move as a ranch up the Twisp River.4 The association's list shows the standing cab under the name Reynaud.2 None of the sources ties that name to the ranch, so the two may or may not be the same place.
The firelookout.com page says the cab is still there.3 Since it went to a private party, the sources describe no public access.1,3
- Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/buttermilk-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Washington lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Buttermilk Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/buttermilkbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Relocated Lookouts - Washington State, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/relocated/locations_462.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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
- Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site (Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org)) (opens another site)
- Buttermilk Butte Fire Lookout Cabin (firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra)) (opens another site)
- Relocated Lookouts - Washington State (WillhiteWeb.com) (opens another site)
- FFLA Washington lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.