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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Bead Lake Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as Bead Lake Peak

Pend Oreille County, WA 20-ft pole L-4 lookout, built 1931 and removed or destroyed in the 1960s; no standing tower; 2023 notes describe footings and a passable road.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in the 1960s per the register (Rex's page says only removed, with no date); destroyed in the 1960s per firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb

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. On Kaniksu/Colville National Forest land; WillhiteWeb describes road and hike access in 2023 and no closure

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Old one-mile spur road to the summit, overgrown but still passable in 2023 per WillhiteWeb; about 500 feet of gain

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab; patrol points about 1/2 mile south (platform tower) and 2 miles north (Mosquito Point)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
4,830 ft (1,472 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.30140, −117.06815
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-bead-lake-mountain

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 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. 1931 Built20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab; register and WillhiteWeb agree on the yearSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1941 EventForest Service surveyed a six-mile road from Bead Lake Pass to the lookout; an August 27, 1941 newspaper quote on Rex's page says it may be built that yearSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1941 and 1960
  4. 1960 RemovedSometime in the 1960s; the register says removed in the 1960s, Rex's page says removed with no date, firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1960 and 2012
  6. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 23, 2012 as US 1483, WA 383; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  7. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Bead Lake Mountain lookout, also called Bead Lake Peak, stood in Pend Oreille County, Washington, on land of the Kaniksu and Colville National Forests.1,2,3

The register dates the tower to 1931 and describes a 20-foot pole L-4.1 WillhiteWeb gives the same tower and year, with an L-4 cab.3 Two patrol points stood nearby: a platform tower half a mile south, and a point two miles north that WillhiteWeb calls Mosquito Point, where it describes footings and anchors.1,3

In 1941 the Forest Service surveyed a six-mile road from Bead Lake Pass to the lookout. A newspaper that August said it might be built that year.3,4

The register says the lookout was removed in the 1960s.1 Rex's Fire Lookout Page lists it only as removed, with no date.4 The firelookout.com page and WillhiteWeb say it was destroyed in that decade instead.2,3 The sources agree it was gone by then, but they differ on how it ended.1,2,3,4

No source describes a standing tower today. WillhiteWeb reports that the old spur road to the summit, a mile long, was still passable in 2023, though overgrown.3 Its photo captions name footings, one lying on its side and one upside down, but do not say exactly where they sit.3 According to the page, most cars can get up the road, though a higher vehicle helps, and the hike covers a mile each way with roughly 500 feet of gain.3 No closure is described.3

  1. Bead Lake Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/bead-lake-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bead Lake Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/beadlake.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bead Lake Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/bead_lake_peak/lookout_370.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Bead Lake Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/bead-lake-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bead Lake Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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. 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

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