Fire lookout · Grays Harbor County, Washington
Artic (Arctic) Lookout Site
Also known as Artic
Grays Harbor state tower: 50-ft pole tower (1948), 40-ft L-4 tower (1952), destroyed or removed 1973; a 2016 visit found no footings and a permit is required.
- Gone
- Permission required
- Verified
Permission required
You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. As of 2016 Weyerhaeuser requires a permit: the Artic Permit, or the Aberdeen General Access Permit for February 1 to July 31
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in 1973 (the registry says removed); a 2016 visit found a survey reference mark, not the cement footings earlier reports describe
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Gravel road to the summit; the last quarter mile was overgrowing in 2016
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower40-foot wooden L-4 tower with a 14x14 foot cab (1952), replacing a 1948 50-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Wood
- Built
- 1948
- Height
- 40 ft (12.2 m)
- Elevation
- 844 ft (257 m)
- Agency
- Washington State Division of Forestry/DNR
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Grays Harbor County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 46.87737, −123.77275
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-artic-arctic
View from the cab
What the lookout saw from its 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.
This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.
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
- 1948 BuiltState Division of Forestry lookout: a 50-foot pole tower with a 12x12 foot slant-walled cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
- 1952 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 40-foot wooden L-4 tower with a 14x14 foot cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
- 1953 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey described the station on the summit; Willhite found its reference mark in 2016Sources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
- No record between 1953 and 1973
- 1973 DestroyedTower and cab destroyed, per firelookout.com, Washington Lookouts and Willhite; the registry says it was removedSources: firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
- No record between 1973 and 2011
- 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 26, 2011 as US 1150, WA 58Source: firetower.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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.
The Artic lookout stood on a logged-off hill about six or seven miles south of Aberdeen, in Grays Harbor County, Washington.1,2 The Washington State Division of Forestry built the first tower there in 1948. It was a 50-foot pole tower with a 12-by-12-foot slanted cab.3,1,4
In 1952 a 40-foot wooden L-4 tower with a 14-by-14-foot cab replaced it.3,2,4 The sources do not say who staffed the tower or which fires it spotted.3,1,2,4
Most sources say the tower was destroyed in 1973. The registry says it was removed that year instead.3,1,2,4
A Coast and Geodetic Survey station on the summit was described in 1953.2 When Willhite visited in 2016 he could not find the cement footings that earlier reports described, but he did find a survey reference mark.4 The land is private timberland, and as of 2016 the timber company, Weyerhaeuser, required a permit for anyone to enter.4 The permit options are the expensive Artic Permit and the cheaper Aberdeen General Access Permit, which covers February 1 to July 31.4 Willhite found the summit overgrowing and no view. He says views will stay blocked until the next harvest, around 2045.4
- Artic (Arctic) Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/artic.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Artic, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/artic.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Artic (Arctic) Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/artic-arctic-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Artic Lookout Site, Eric Willhite, WillhiteWeb, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/artic_lookout/grays_harbor_county_033.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: height, 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
- WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1150 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Washington lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Artic (Arctic) on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Artic on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- Artic on WillhiteWeb.com Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.