Fire lookout · Pierce County, Washington

Bearhead Mountain Lookout Site

L-4 cab built on Bearhead Mountain in 1931, removed or destroyed in 1957 (sources differ); a rusted pipe stub is the only remnant a source describes.

Gone
Open to the public
Verified

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed or destroyed in 1957 (sources differ on the wording); the hiking guide says little evidence remains, a rusted pipe nub among the rocks

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. Summit reached on Bearhead Mountain Trail #1179.1, a six-mile hike; the hiking guide says a Northwest Forest Pass is required. No closure found in the pages read

Road to the top?: Unknown
Trail: No tower remains. The hiking guide describes a summit hike with views of Mt. Rainier. It starts at the end of FR 7810, which runs 6.5 unpaved miles from the turn just before the Carbon River Ranger Station, then follows Summit Lake Trail #1177, Carbon River Trail #1179 and Bearhead Mountain Trail #1179.1.

Facts

Status: Gone
Type: Ground-level cabL-4 cab at the summitThe design: L-4
Built of: WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built: 1931
Height: Unknown
Elevation: 6,089 ft (1,856 m)
Agency: U.S. Forest Service (Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest per firelookout.com)
Land: Federal land
Location: Pierce County, Washington
Coordinates: 47.02371, −121.81590
Registers: FFLOS US 1270 · WA 170
This entry: VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id: us-wa-bearhead-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 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

1929 EventLookout camp on the summit; Jess Rose was the lookout in 1929 and 1930 (WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
1931 BuiltL-4 cab built at the summit in 1931Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
1934 EventPanoramic photos taken from the summit on August 1, 1934Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
No record between 1934 and 1957
1957 Destroyedfirelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say the cab was destroyed in 1957Sources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
1957 RemovedRegister, hiking guide and Washington lookouts list say the cab was removed in 1957Sources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, hikingwithmybrother.com
No record between 1957 and 2012
2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 22, 2012Source: 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 lookout on Bearhead Mountain was an L-4 cab, built in 1931.¹^,²^,³ A hiking guide says the Forest Service built it at the summit that year.⁴

The summit was in use before the cab was built. WillhiteWeb says there was a lookout camp there in 1929, and that Jess Rose was the lookout in 1929 and 1930.³ The hiking guide says the cabin was staffed through 1957.⁴

The summit was captured in panoramic photos in 1934.¹^,³^,⁵ The register's photo captions credit the National Archives Pacific Northwest Region for the 1934 panoramas.¹ The Washington lookouts list dates them to August 1, 1934.⁵

Sources disagree on how the cab ended, but all of them give 1957.¹^,²^,³^,⁵^,⁴ The register, the hiking guide and the Washington lookouts list say it was removed.¹^,⁵^,⁴ firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say it was destroyed.²^,³

The hiking guide is the only source we read that describes the site today. It says the cabin has left little trace, and that only a rusted pipe stub among the rocks remains of a shaft that once mounted an Osborne Firefinder, the instrument lookouts used to locate fires.⁴

A 1955 U.S. Geological Survey station description, quoted on the Washington lookouts page, places the Bearhead station about 15 miles southeast of Enumclaw.⁵

The hike is six miles on Bearhead Mountain Trail #1179.1, and the guide says a Northwest Forest Pass is required.⁴ We list access as public.

Bearhead Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/bearhead-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bearhead Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/bearheadmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bearhead Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/clearwater_wilderness/bearhead_mountain/cayada_285.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bearhead Mountain Trail #1179.1, Hiking with my Brother, https://www.hikingwithmybrother.com/bearhead-mountain-trail-11791.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bearhead Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/bearhead-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Bearhead Mountain LookoutPhoto: Eric Willhite collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Bearhead Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-1-1934 (N) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Bearhead Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-1-1934 (SE) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

Bearhead Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-1-1934 (SW) (1934)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

Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
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: 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, 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.