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Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Blue Mountain Lookout Site

84-foot 1936 timber tower on Blue Mountain (Snohomish Co.); AWS used the site 1942-43; removed or destroyed 1969; footings and a slab reported.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower came down in 1969; sources differ on whether it was removed or destroyed. Footings and a concrete slab are reported at the site.

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. The route starts at a gated road off Sultan Basin Road. The sources do not say whether the public may pass the gate.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Willhite lists the route at six miles and 2,000 feet of gain from a start near 800 feet, beginning at a gate 6.3 miles up Sultan Basin Road from Highway 2.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower84-foot treated timber tower on the west ridge; sources differ between an L-6 design and an L-7 cabThe design: L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1936
Height
84 ft (25.6 m)
Elevation
2,787 ft (850 m)
Agency
Washington Division of Forestry/DNR
Land
State land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
47.96294, −121.75436
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-blue-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 4.0 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. 1936 Built84-foot treated timber tower built by S & P and CCC crews, with a ground house for living.Sources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org
  2. 1939 EventHigh Rocks station discontinued; the territory it viewed was taken over by Blue Mountain.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1940 EventWashington Forest Fire Association bulldozer built the final mile of road to the site, as a cat road; the association said it let automobiles reach the lookout.Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 StaffedAnnual report describes a lookout man packing supplies up about a mile of trail with grades of 30 percent.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1942 EventUsed by the AWS in 1942 and 1943; a 12x20 garage may have been built. Seattle Filter Center note gives activation March 8, 1942 and deactivation October 16, 1943.Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1942 and 1969
  7. 1969 DestroyedFFLOS says removed; the other three sources say destroyed. The year agrees across all four.Sources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1969 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register, January 26, 2012.Source: 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.

In 1936 crews from S & P and the CCC built an 84-foot treated timber tower on the west ridge of Blue Mountain, in Snohomish County.1,2 They also built a ground house for the lookout to live in.1 The Washington Division of Forestry/DNR is listed as the agency.3 Sources differ on the design: the Former Fire Lookout Sites register calls it an L-6 tower, while a Washington lookout history page describes an L-7 cab.2,4

In 1939 Blue Mountain took over the area High Rocks had covered after the High Rocks station was discontinued.4 A 1940 annual report says the station's lookout carried supplies up roughly a mile of trail, some of it at a 30 percent grade.4 That same year a bulldozer from the Washington Forest Fire Association put in the last mile of road to the site.1 The association's report said the new road let automobiles in and made the lookout man more useful.4

The site was used by the AWS in 1942 and 1943, and a 12x20 garage may have been built then.1 A Seattle Filter Center note gives March 8, 1942 as the activation date and October 16, 1943 as the deactivation date.4

The tower came down in 1969, though the sources disagree on how: the register says it was removed, while the other three say it was destroyed.1,2,3,4 The site was listed on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register in January 2012.2

Willhite walked past the site four times without finding it, and he believes the footings could be found when there is no snow.1 One photo caption describes a large concrete slab a short distance from the road, and another places a 2007 hiking group at the footings.1 Beyond the slab and footings, the sources say little about the site as it stands today.

Willhite's route starts at a gate on the left, 6.3 miles up Sultan Basin Road from Highway 2 in Sultan.1 He lists the route at six miles with 2,000 feet of gain from a start near 800 feet.1 The sources do not say whether the public may pass that gate.

  1. Blue Mountain Lookout Site - Snohomish County, Eric Willhite (WillhiteWeb), https://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/blue_mountain_sultan/tower_263.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Blue Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/blue-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Blue Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/bluemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Blue Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Washington Lookouts (weebly), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/blue-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Blue Mountain Lookout
Blue Mountain LookoutPhoto: Ron Kemnow collection, via 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, 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
  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: height, ownership, 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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