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Fire lookout · King County, Washington

Cedar Point Lookout Site

Also known as Cedar Point (City)

Seattle watershed lookout at 2,162 ft: wooden tower 1931, timber tower 1961, destroyed or removed 1981. The site is closed to public access; the only site description is a 1997 photo caption.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Inside the City of Seattle watershed and closed to public access; Willhite says tours sometimes visit

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed or removed in 1981; the site is inside a closed city watershed

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Listed as drive-up, but special permission and a guide are required (Willhite)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot wooden tower with ground cabin (1931); 40-foot treated timber tower with 15x15 R-6 flat cab and catwalk (1961)The design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,162 ft (659 m)
Agency
City of Seattle Water Department
Land
Unknown
Location
King County, Washington
Coordinates
47.41408, −121.84173
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-cedar-point

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 3.8 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 BuiltFirst lookout: 40-foot wooden tower with a ground cabinSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1942 EventAircraft Warning Service yearlong observation post, per a 1942 inspection quoted by Willhite; the Forest Lookouts index dates the activation March 25, 1942 and deactivation October 16, 1943Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1947 StaffedLeo Ogle listed as known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1951 StaffedPearl Collins listed as known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1961 Replaced by a new structureReplacement 40-foot treated timber tower with 15x15 R-6 flat cab and catwalkSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1961 and 1981
  7. 1981 DestroyedThe register says removed; the Fire Lookout Association and Willhite say destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1981 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered January 6, 2011 as US 815, WA 34Source: 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.

Cedar Point, which a 1942 report calls City Lookout, stood at 2,162 feet inside Seattle's Cedar River watershed in King County.1,2 The register and Willhite both date the first lookout to 1931, a 40-foot wooden tower with a cabin at ground level.1,2 The City of Seattle Water Department administered the site.1 In 1961 the lookout was replaced by a 40-foot treated timber tower with a 15-by-15-foot R-6 flat-top cab and a catwalk.1,2

Willhite quotes a 1942 inspection report that says the city normally manned the lookout and built it.2 That year the Aircraft Warning Service got permission to use it as a yearlong observation post.2 The Forest Lookouts index dates the activation from March 25, 1942 to October 16, 1943.3 The Fire Lookout Association lists Leo Ogle in 1947 and Pearl Collins in 1951 as known lookout personnel.4

The register says the 1961 tower was last used in the 1970s and was removed in 1981.1 The Fire Lookout Association and Willhite both say it was destroyed that year.4,2 The sources use different words for the 1981 end, and we have not settled which is right.

The site is closed to public access.1 Willhite says tours sometimes visit the lookout and other historic sites, and lists the visit as "Special Permission & Guide Required."2 A photo caption on the register, dated 1997, reads "Tower leg foundation overgrown with alders."1 No source we read describes the site today beyond that caption.

  1. Cedar Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/cedar-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cedar Point Lookout - Cedar River Watershed, WillhiteWeb, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/cedar_point/cedar_river_watershed_296.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cedar Point (City), Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/cedar-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cedar Point Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/cedarpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cedar Point Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tower leg foundation overgrown with alders 6/26/1997
Tower leg foundation overgrown with alders 6/26/1997 (1997)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
6/26/1997
6/26/1997 (1997)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1979
1979 (1979)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1931
1931 (1931)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, 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: 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, 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.