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Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Armstrong Mountain Lookout

A 100-foot Aermotor steel lookout built in 1939 on Colville Reservation land in Washington, abandoned since 1952; non-tribal visitors need a Colville permit.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. The summit is on Colville tribal land. Non-tribal visitors must buy a Colville recreation permit, about $80 a year per TrailChick. TrailChick warns that access could change.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor steel tower with a cab about 7 by 7 feetThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1939
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
4,552 ft (1,387 m)
Agency
Colville Indian Reservation (cooperator: Colville National Forest)
Land
Tribal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.26717, −119.08568
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-armstrong-mountain

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

  1. 1939 Built100-foot Aermotor steel tower, the first and only lookout on the summitSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
  2. 1939 EventSpokesman-Review item (Aug 9, 1939) reports plans for about four miles of telephone line to the new towerSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1943 StaffedColville Examiner (July 17, 1943) reports teachers working as summer fire lookouts; one teacher is placed on Armstrong MountainSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1952 AbandonedSite abandoned; the ground-level living quarters and the lookout roof have since disappearedSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1952 and 2022
  6. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 11, 2022 as US 1521, WA 70; nominated by Brad EellsSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Armstrong Mountain Lookout sits on a summit within the Colville Indian Reservation, about 22 miles east-southeast of Omak in Okanogan County, Washington.1,2 The steel tower there is an Aermotor design, 100 feet tall, built in 1939 and the only lookout the summit has carried.2,3 Its cab is roughly seven feet square.2

An August 1939 Spokesman-Review item reported plans for about four miles of new telephone line to the tower.4 In July 1943 the Colville Examiner reported that numerous teachers had summer jobs as fire lookouts in the Colville National Forest, and it placed one of them on Armstrong Mountain.4 The sources I read give no further staffing record after that, and no notable fire at the site.

The site has stood empty since 1952, and its ground-level living quarters and the lookout roof have disappeared.1,2 The NHLR and TrailChick both describe the steel tower itself as still in place, and TrailChick's photos date from a November 2017 visit.1,3 The National Historic Lookout Register registered the lookout on April 11, 2022, as US 1521, with Brad Eells as nominator.1

The summit is on Colville tribal land.1,3 Non-tribal visitors must buy a Colville recreation permit, which TrailChick says costs $80 a year.3 The same blog cautions that the rules may change without warning.3 Anyone interested should check the current rules with the Colville Tribes first. TrailChick's 2017 visitor did not climb to the top, citing wind and a lack of nerve.3

  1. Armstrong Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/armstrong-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Armstrong Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/armstrong.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Armstrong Mountain, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/armstrong-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Armstrong Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Washington), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/armstrong-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Armstrong Mountain Lookout
Armstrong Mountain LookoutPhoto: Tammy McLeod, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Armstrong Mtn. in 1997
Armstrong Mtn. in 1997 (1997)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Armstrong Mountain Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.com) · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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
  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: design, photos, 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) 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. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: height, photos TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts Gave us: links WillhiteWeb.com · No licence stated; names and page links only (the site's photos and text are not reproduced). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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