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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Chelan Butte Lookout Site (now at CBFIC)

Also known as CBFIC, Chelan Butte Lookout

Chelan County, WA 28-foot L-4 timber lookout from Chelan Butte; first built 1936 or 1938 depending on source; moved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center in 1995.

Original site: Chelan Butte Lookout Site

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Lookout interior is open only during center events or by special arrangement (CBFIC). WTA describes three short trails at the center; no entry fee

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
At the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center just north of Entiat; the Washington Trails Association lists no entry fee
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1990s)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower28-foot treated timber tower with a Plan L-4 lookout cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
29 ft (8.7 m)
Elevation
3,835 ft (1,169 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service / Washington Department of Natural Resources (original site)
Land
Unknown
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.69620, −120.20966
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-chelan-butte-lookout-site-at-cbfic

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1936 BuiltFirst tower, a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, per the FFLOS register and FireLookout.com. The NRHP nomination does not mention itSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1938 BuiltNRHP: a Civilian Conservation Corps crew built the road, tower and cabin in 1938 under Sim BeesonSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  3. 1938 StaffedMac McFadden listed as lookout 1938-1940Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1939 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 28-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1939 and 1990
  6. 1990 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed 12/27/1990 as part of the USDA Forest Service Fire Lookouts on Wenatchee NF multiple property listing; the listing describes the summit siteSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  7. 1995 MovedMoved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, 1 mile north of Entiat beside Highway 97Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1995 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register 21 August 2012Source: firetower.org
  10. Date unknown BurnedThe first 40-foot pole tower burned; the year is not givenSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  11. Date unknown MovedMoved from Chelan Butte to CBFIC.Source: FFLA
  12. Date unknown Last staffedStaffed sporadically into the 1990s, per the FFLOS register and FireLookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  13. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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.

Chelan Butte, about two miles south of Chelan, Washington, held a Forest Service lookout from the 1930s.1,2

The sources disagree about the first tower. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and FireLookout.com both say a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up in 1936. It later burned, and a 28-foot treated timber tower replaced it in 1939.1,2 The National Register nomination, written in 1988, says a Civilian Conservation Corps crew built the road, tower and cabin in 1938 under Sim Beeson, and says nothing about an earlier tower.3 We keep both dates on the record.

FireLookout.com lists Mac McFadden as a lookout from 1938 to 1940.2 The nomination says it served for several years as a main fire-watch station across two national forests.3 As of the nomination, it had gone several years without fire surveillance.3 The register says it was staffed sporadically into the 1990s.1 Those two accounts do not match neatly.

The National Register listed the lookout on December 27, 1990.3 In 1995 the tower was moved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, roughly a mile north of Entiat.1,2 The nomination says its original furnishings had been removed and were reportedly in Forest Service storage.3

Today the lookout stands at the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, just north of Entiat.4 The center says the interior is open only during its events or by special arrangement.4 The Washington Trails Association describes three short trails at the center and lists no entry fee.5

  1. Chelan Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/chelan-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Chelan Butte Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/chelanbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Chelan Butte Lookout, National Register of Historic Places nomination (NRIS 90001912), National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/90001912.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. CBFIC - Lookouts, Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, https://www.columbiabreakswildfire.com/explore/lookouts (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/columbia-breaks-fire-interprative-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Chelan Butte Lookout Site (now at CBFIC)
Photo: Joe Mabel, via Wikimedia Commons · GFDL · 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: elevation, register numbers, dates, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.