The Lookouts

For me, there is something completely magical about visiting a historic fire lookout. Although some are not too difficult to hike to, many require driving up terrible forest roads and hiking arduous miles up, up, and up to reach their summit perches. The effort however is all worth it because the destinations deliver stunning views that will take your breath away. And being there is a reminder of a more romantic past that represents an era before modern technology when solitary human beings dutifully scanned for signs of developing wildfires from austere glass-walled cabins perched on rocky mountain summits throughout the Pacific Northwest. 

“It was a great life. You woke up to the greatest views of all. You breathed the freshest air in the world. You ate and did the chores when the spirit moved you. You had the whole mountain to call your own. And the government even paid you to be there! That’s how it was back in the 1930s when forestry agencies were working frantically to put a firewatcher on every mountaintop. Eight thousand men and women in the U.S. would spend each summer as an official government lookout during the three decades that followed.” Ray Kresek, Heaven’s Gate Lookout, Idaho.

In the early 1900s private fire watchers began to oversee the expansive white pine forests of Idaho. The arrival of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 and subsequent historic wildfires launched the building and staffing government lookouts to protect America’s half-billion acres of national forests.

Early lookouts were non-standard, freelanced affairs that ranged from small tents to spacious log cabins.  By 1915 the U.S. Forest Service had established standards for cabin construction with a 12’ x 12’ D-6 ‘cupola design’ with a glassed-in second story observatory. Nearly 200 were constructed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. By 1929 lookout designs had evolved to the L-4 model, a 14’ x 14’ frame cabin with gable shingle or hip roof and heavy shutters which were opened above the perimeter windows to provide shade in the summer. The original L-4 cost was $500 from Spokane, WA, or Portland, OR. This cabin was produced in kits for hauling by mule trains to their rugged mountain sites where they could be assembled on rock or cinder block foundations or timber towers. Other versions followed but the L-4 was the most ubiquitous with over 1,000 put into service. If you hike to many historic fire lookouts, chances are high that you visit an L-4.

“At the zenith of the lookout era, there were more than 8,000 across America. Montana had 639. In Washington, there were 656. Oregon had 849. Only in Idaho, there were more, with a whopping 989 plus a hundred more “patrol” points visited each day! Only a few hundred are still manned, a few dozen by volunteers. The government rents some to would-be fire watchers to man a summit for a day or week. Others are even being restored by individuals at their own expense under special agreements with various agencies. Some of the cabins have become national historic monuments. Hundreds have survived only in tattered old photographs.” Ray Kresek, Historic Lookout Project, Spokane, WA.

According to recent records, only 92 of the 656 lookouts in Washington State survive today, and there will likely be fewer in the future. Fire lookout hikes are among my favorites and I plan to visit as many as I can as weather and time permits.

I have taken 45 virtual reality spherical panoramic photos of and near several historic fire lookouts in Washington State. All have amazing vistas. Here are five examples that can be viewed from 360cities.net. Be sure to click the full-screen icon as you roll over the upper right of the photo for best viewing. To view them all, search at 360.Cities.net with: Fire Lookouts, Washington, Bill Edwards.

Park Butte Lookout: https://www.360cities.net/image/park-butte-lookout-north-cascades-wa-state-usa-2

Hidden Lake Lookout: https://www.360cities.net/image/hidden-lake-lookout-north-cascades-national-park-wa-state

Tolmie Peak Lookout: https://www.360cities.net/image/tolmie-peak-summit-mt-rainier-national-park-washington-state

Granite Mountain Lookout: https://www.360cities.net/image/granite-mountain-fire-lookout-cabin-alpine-lakes-wilderness-washington-state

Goat Peak Lookout: https://www.360cities.net/image/goat-peak-lookout-okanogan-wenatchee-national-forest-wa-state