Fire lookout · Douglas County, Washington
Rocky Butte Area Tower (moved from an unknown site)
Also known as Rocky Butte Area Tower, Rocky Butte
90-foot Aermotor MC-39 tower in Douglas County, WA, believed moved from a reservation and now hosting communications gear; registered 2026, no build date found.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower90-foot Aermotor MC-39 towerThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 90 ft (27.4 m)
- Elevation
- 2,444 ft (745 m)
- Agency
- Unknown
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Douglas County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 48.05433, −119.72300
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-rocky-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.
Downloads about 4.1 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
- 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2026Source: nhlr.org
- Date unknown EventBelieved to have stood at the present site since at least the mid-1980s (register's belief, not a dated record)Source: nhlr.org
- Date unknown MovedRegister believes the tower was previously used on an Indian reservation for fire detection before reaching its present site; move date and origin not recordedSource: nhlr.org
- 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.
Rocky Butte Area Tower is a 90-foot Aermotor MC-39 tower in Douglas County, Washington, at an elevation of 2,444 feet (745 meters).1 Aermotor produced several lookout models over the years, and the MC-39 was one of them.2
The National Historic Lookout Register knows little about the tower's early life.1 The register believes the tower was previously used for fire detection on a reservation before it reached its present site.1 It does not name the reservation or give a date.1
The register believes the tower has stood at its present site since at least the mid-1980s.1 There it hosts communications equipment.1 I found no construction date, no staffing record, and no notable fire history for it.1
A regional photo caption mentions a different tower: a 130-foot lookout west of Rocky Butte that is not in the historic listings. The two should not be confused.3
The tower was registered on January 2, 2026, and the Washington lookout list marks it as standing.1,4 I found no access information.1 Because the site now carries communications gear, this story does not suggest a visit.1
- Rocky Butte Area Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/rocky-butte-area-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- The Aermotor Company: From Windmills to Forest Lookout Towers, Society for Industrial Archeology, https://www.sia-web.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Vol48_No4_Fall_2019_Web1.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Badger Mountain Lookout Tower: Fire protection and history in NCW, Wenatchee World, https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/empirepress/badger-mountain-lookout-tower-fire-protection-and-history-in-ncw/article_b9a6cf37-8c5d-46c5-b554-b90db915c901.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Washington Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: name, type, status, register numbers, 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, height, status, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1815 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- The Aermotor Company: From Windmills to Forest Lookout Towers (Society for Industrial Archeology) (opens another site)
- Badger Mountain Lookout Tower: Fire protection and history in NCW (Wenatchee World) (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.