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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Basalt Peak Lookout Site

Also known as Basalt Mountain

Chelan County, WA 1930s L-4 cab site on a Wenatchee NF summit; a 1935 temporary observer is recorded. Now gone, possibly on a lower knoll, per a 2021 account.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Described as gone by FFLOS and Firelookout; Forest Lookouts index says removed; WillhiteWeb finds no remaining evidence of the crow's nest on the summit

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. WillhiteWeb (2021) describes four trail routes from Chikamin Creek Road; no closure or permit is mentioned in the sources read, and no agency statement was found

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About three miles of hiking. Best route as of 2021 is the Basalt Pass trail, which starts 5.7 miles up Chikamin Creek Road #6210. Many blowdowns from the 2020 Chikamin Fire, slowly being cleared.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (FFLOS and Firelookout); WillhiteWeb suggests the cab stood on the ground on a nearby lower knoll rather than the summitThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,004 ft (1,830 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.97623, −120.74829
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-basalt-peak

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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

  1. 1930 BuiltBuilt in the 1930s (decade only) with an L-4 cab, per FFLOS and FirelookoutSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 StaffedWalter Douglas served as temporary lookout for a few days in September 1935, per a Wenatchee Daily World item quoted by WillhiteWebSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1936 EventPanoramic photographs taken July 28, 1936Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1936 and 2012
  5. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 20, 2012, nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  6. 2020 FireChikamin Fire caused many blowdowns on the access route; the sources do not say whether it reached the summitSource: willhiteweb.com
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Basalt Peak sits in Chelan County, Washington, in the Wenatchee National Forest, at about 6,004 feet.1 Firelookout.com places it about 11 miles north of Lake Wenatchee.2 Some listings call it Basalt Mountain.3

The register and Firelookout.com both date the lookout to the 1930s and describe an L-4 cab, now gone.1,2 WillhiteWeb points to a puzzle. Its inventory puts the L-4 cab at the summit, but panoramas taken on July 28, 1936 show mature trees covering the top, and parts of the photographs picture a crow's nest and anchor cables.4,3 After visits by enthusiasts in 2021, WillhiteWeb suggests the cab probably sat on the ground on a lower knoll nearby.4

The one staffing record in these sources is a 1935 newspaper item, as WillhiteWeb quotes it. It names Walter Douglas as a stand-in observer on Basalt Peak for a short spell in September 1935.4

WillhiteWeb reports that the summit forest has burned in two major wildfires since 1936, and that no one has turned up any trace of the former crow's nest.4 The Forest Lookouts index marks the site as removed.3 The register describes the cab as gone.1

On the lower knoll, WillhiteWeb describes an excavated flat area ringed by rock walls that it considers the right size for a cab, and says the platform lines up with other former lookout sites.4 The site is reached on foot. WillhiteWeb lists four trail routes and about three miles of hiking, and in 2021 it recommended the Basalt Pass trail, which starts 5.7 miles up Chikamin Creek Road.4 The 2020 Chikamin Fire left many blowdowns along the access routes, and as of the 2021 account crews were clearing them slowly.4 We found no agency statement on access or closures, so check with the Wenatchee National Forest before you go.

  1. Basalt Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/basalt-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Basalt Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/basaltpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Basalt Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/basalt-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Basalt Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/basalt_peak_lookout/wenatchee_083.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (N)
Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (N) (1936)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (SE)
Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (SE) (1936)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (SW)
Basalt Peak Lookout panoramic 7-28-1936 (SW) (1936)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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
  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: 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) Gave us: 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
  5. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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

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