Gold Butte Fire Lookout

Administrative agency:  Willamette NF

Staffing status:  was open to public use, probably not used for emergencies, possible future rental

Elevation:  4618 ft 

Structure:  1934 ground mounted L-4 without catwalk at the present time

Access:  a gate had been present around a mile from the trailhead, but had been torn down before my visit, a ¼ mile walk is necessary to reach the tower, the trailhead is around 10 miles from the main road, a sign is present at the gate site indicating that the lookout is closed for restoration until October 2001, a small sign is also present at the trailhead

Road conditions:  the road is paved for 2-3 miles, but quickly deteriorates, the next section has a good amount of large rocks, potholes, and wash boarding, the section after the gate site is very rough, with large ruts due to water running down the road, as well as a lot of large rocks

Interior:  ???

Other structures on summit:  none, I didn’t even see an outhouse

Electrical power source:  no power source was present during my visit

Other:  the lookout was originally saved by private contributions, it is receiving additional work by the Sand Mountain Society including material from the old SiSi lookout, a large amount of work has been done, and it is in good condition, many new non-original materials have been used in the restoration effort, several trees have grown up around the lookout, but the view is very nice, many mountains are visible, I am glad to see that people are restoring it

Visited:  Dominic Luebbers in November 2001