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Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site

Okanogan County, WA: 1934 L-4 cab on Buttermilk Butte, sold and moved to a private ranch up the Twisp River in 1951; the association lists a standing cab at Reynaud.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. The cab went to a private ranch in 1951; no source describes public access to the summit or the ranch

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Reynaud

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. The cab was sold and moved to a private ranch in 1951; the association lists the original site as gone

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
Moved
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,471 ft (1,668 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.30108, −120.31095
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-buttermilk-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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at 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. 1932 StaffedWillhiteWeb names Oval Capps as lookout/fireman; the same page says the entry 'must have been a camp'Source: willhiteweb.com
  2. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab on the butte per the register and FireLookout.com; WillhiteWeb says the September 1934 panoramas show no evidence of a structureSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1951
  4. 1951 MovedCab sold to a private party and moved to a ranch 4 miles up the Twisp RiverSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1951 and 2012
  6. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 10, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  7. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Reynaud.Source: FFLA
  8. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. 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.

Buttermilk Butte sits about 10 miles southwest of Twisp, Washington, in the Okanogan National Forest.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register lists the original site as US 1436.2

The register says an L-4 cab was built on the butte in 1934.2 FireLookout.com gives the same year.1 WillhiteWeb also gives 1934, but it adds that the September panoramic photographs show no evidence of a structure, though a road did reach the summit.3 Washington Lookouts dates the panoramas to September 2, 1934.4 The sources agree on the year but not on whether a structure shows in those photographs, so we treat 1934 as the register's date rather than a settled fact.

WillhiteWeb names Oval Capps as the lookout or fireman in 1932, but its own note says the entry "must have been a camp."3 We found no other record of who staffed the butte.

In 1951 a private buyer acquired the cab and moved it to a ranch roughly four miles upstream on the Twisp River.2,1,4,3 That cab is therefore on private land, and no source describes public access to it.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the original site as gone and shows a standing cab at a place it calls Reynaud.5 None of the sources we read connects Reynaud with the ranch, so we cannot say whether they are the same place.

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains on the butte today.2,5 FireLookout.com says the cab is still at the ranch.1 Please treat the cab as private property and ask the owner before you go near it.

  1. Buttermilk Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/buttermilkbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/buttermilk-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/buttermilk_butte_lookout/twisp_river_086.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Buttermilk Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/buttermilk-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Washington lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Buttermilk Butte Lookout Site
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, 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, 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

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