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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Chewelah Peak Lookout Site

Stevens County, WA: 1938 pole lookout on Chewelah Peak, replaced 1963 by a timber tower sold and moved to a farm north of Chewelah in 1985.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. The 1963 tower went to a private farm in 1985; no source describes access to the summit today

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Scranton

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. The 1963 tower was sold and moved to a private farm north of Chewelah in 1985; the association lists the original summit tower as gone

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a tower50-ft pole tower with L-4 cab (1938); 41-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flattop cab (1963)The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,773 ft (1,760 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
48.28445, −117.57210
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-chewelah-peak

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at 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. 1925 EventA 1925 Colville Examiner item, quoted by WillhiteWeb, mentions a fire warden at the lookout station on Chewelah Peak; its link to the 1938 tower is unknownSource: willhiteweb.com
  2. 1938 Built50-ft pole tower with L-4 cab, the first tower of the 1938 developmentSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1945 StaffedFireLookout.com lists Rachel Butte as lookout for 1945-1950; the list of staff runs to 1977Source: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1945 and 1963
  5. 1963 Replaced by a new structure41-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flattop cab replaced the pole towerSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1963 and 1985
  7. 1985 MovedSold to Frank Scranton and moved to his farm alongside Highway 395, just north of ChewelahSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1985 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 23, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Scranton.Source: FFLA
  11. Date unknown StaffedForest Service staffed the lookout into the 1970sSource: firetower.org
  12. Date unknown Last staffedWashington Department of Natural Resources staffed it for a couple of seasons in the early 1980sSource: firetower.org
  13. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Chewelah Peak rises about six miles east of Chewelah, Washington, in Stevens County, within the Colville National Forest.1

The register dates the first lookout on the peak to 1938, a 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab. In 1963 a 41-foot treated-timber tower with an R-6 flattop cab took its place.2 WillhiteWeb gives the same 1938 and 1963 dates.3 But WillhiteWeb also quotes a 1925 Colville Examiner article describing a fire warden posted to the peak, and it says a lookout cabin stood there that year.3 We could not tell whether that 1925 station was the same as the 1938 tower.

According to the register, the Forest Service kept the lookout manned into the 1970s, and the state Department of Natural Resources ran it for a few seasons in the early 1980s.2 FireLookout.com lists known lookout staff from 1945 to 1977, beginning with Rachel Butte for 1945 to 1950.1

In 1985 Frank Scranton bought the tower and had it moved onto his farm beside Highway 395, north of Chewelah.2,1,3,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the original site as gone.5

The register says the tower still stands on the farm.2 A Chewelah Independent "Remember When" column reports that the tower was taken down and put back up on the Scranton land north of town, and it advises readers to watch for it among the trees on the highway's left.6 The column has no publication date in the text we read, but its anniversary headings ("120 Years Ago - August 3, 1906" and "80 Years Ago - August 1, 1946") point to 2026. The register's present-tense line is undated. So the column is the most recent source we found, though it is not a site visit and does not describe the tower's condition.2,6 No source we read describes what is on the summit now.5 The farm is private property, so do not visit without the owner's permission.4

  1. Chewelah Peak Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/chewelahpk.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Chewelah Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/chewelah-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Chewelah Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/chewelah_peak/lookout_168.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Relocated Lookouts - Washington State, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/relocated/locations_462.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Washington lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Remember When, Chewelah Independent, https://www.chewelahindependent.com/remember-when/article_0fdd3512-3361-401c-adcb-3587772e2dd8.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Chewelah Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1940s
1940sPhoto: 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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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