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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Beehive Mountain Lookout Site

Wenatchee National Forest lookout near Mission Ridge: a 1931 cab, a 1940 pole tower, and a 1973 removal. One concrete footing remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower came down in 1973; one concrete footing and some eyebolts remain.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Forest Road 9712 has a locked gate and is closed in winter.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Under one mile with 307 feet of elevation gain, per WillhiteWeb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower18-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (1940 to 1973)The designs: L-4, L-5
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,576 ft (1,395 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.33136, −120.39176
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-beehive-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 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 BuiltL-5 cab, at ground level per WillhiteWebSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 EventAugust 1, 1935: a Squilichuck rancher reported a fire by phone; the call was relayed to the Wenatchee district fireman, and the lookouts could not see smoke at the place indicatedSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 StaffedTwo CCC workers from Camp Icicle posted at the emergency lookout, per the Wenatchee Daily World (report of June 4, 1935)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 Replaced by a new structure18-foot pole tower with L-4 cab replaced the L-5 cabSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1947 StaffedObservers listed from 1947 (Don Wehmeyer) to 1963 (Dave Griffith)Source: firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1947 and 1973
  7. 1973 RemovedFFLOS says removed; firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1973 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 20, 2012Source: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Beehive Mountain sits about six miles southwest of Wenatchee, Washington, in the Wenatchee National Forest.1,2 A fire lookout stood on the peak from 1931 until 1973.2,3

The first lookout went up in 1931.1 The first cab was an L-5 model sitting at ground level.4 In 1940 an 18-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab replaced it.1,4

The Wenatchee Daily World reported in June 1935 that two Civilian Conservation Corps workers from Camp Icicle had been assigned to Beehive's emergency lookout.5 A lookout-history site lists observers from 1947 through 1963, starting with Don Wehmeyer.2 In August 1935 the lookouts passed a fire call from a Squilichuck rancher to the district fireman, but they could not see smoke where the caller pointed.5

The register says the lookout was removed in 1973.1 The state's Department of Natural Resources had built its Harriets Peak lookout about five miles away the year before.1 Firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb both say it was destroyed that year, so the sources differ on the wording.2,4 A photo caption on WillhiteWeb calls a 1963 structure the second Beehive lookout, which does not match the 1940 date the other pages give.1,2,4

Today, WillhiteWeb reports that only a concrete footing, a few eyebolts and the base of a storage building remain.4 No tower stands there now.4 A SummitPost writer said the summit offers wide views over the east side of Mission Ridge.3

Forest Road 9712 branches off Mission Ridge Road and goes much of the way up to Beehive Reservoir.3 A locked gate sits on the road about half a mile past the reservoir, and the last stretch is a walk up a gated logging road.4 SummitPost says the road is closed in winter, so check its status before you go.3

  1. Beehive Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/beehive-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Beehive Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/beehive.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Beehive Mountain, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/beehive-mountain/880844 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Beehive Mountain - Mission Ridge Ski Area, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/beehive_mountain_lookout/wenatchee_298.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Beehive Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/beehive-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Beehive Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1935
1935 (1935)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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. 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.