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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Clear Creek Lookout Site

Also known as Clear Creek Butte

L-5 cab on a 10-foot log base, built 1932 in Gifford Pinchot NF; removal date unknown, and little remains on a cliff-edged ridge.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab is gone. The register does not say when it was removed.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
From paved FR 25, take forest road FR 2573 about 1.7 miles to a bend with parking, then walk the abandoned Wildcat Trail. Willhite lists the distance as 0.4 miles.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-5 cab on a 10-foot log baseThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,105 ft (946 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.18703, −121.99095
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-clear-creek

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. 1932 BuiltL-5 cab on a 10-foot log base, per the register, firelookout.com and Willhite. None of them names the builder or why this spot was chosen.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1936 EventDated north and southeast views in Willhite's captions, and a Forest Lookouts list note of panorama photos taken, both 14 August 1936Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 2012
  4. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 23, 2012 on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. 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.

Clear Creek Lookout was an L-5 cab on a 10-foot log base, built in 1932 on a rock promontory with cliffs on three sides.1,2,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register, which added the site on June 23, 2012, lists the U.S. Forest Service as administrator and places it in Skamania County.1 Firelookout.com puts the site about nine miles east of Mount St. Helens, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.2 The register gives its elevation as 3,105 feet (946 m), while Willhite's page gives 3,000 feet.1,3 The Forest Lookouts page also calls the site Clear Creek Butte.4

None of the pages we read says who built the cab, why this spot was chosen, or who staffed it. Willhite's notes mention a fire that cleared the trees from the ridge, but they give no date for it.3 Willhite's photo captions date north and southeast views to August 14, 1936.3 The Forest Lookouts list notes panorama photos taken on that same day.4

The register says it is unclear when the cab was removed.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association list shows the two-story cab as gone.5 Willhite's notes say not much remains, and the photo captions list parts of the base, metal parts and a coiled phone line.3

Getting there is a short drive and walk.3 From the paved FR 25, Willhite's route takes the northern branch, forest road FR 2573, for roughly 1.7 miles to a bend with parking, where the trail begins.3 The walk follows the abandoned Wildcat Trail.3 Willhite lists the distance as 0.4 miles, with a few hundred feet of climbing round trip.3 Willhite reports that trees are returning to the site, which has cliffs on three sides.3 We found no source that describes the view from the site today, and no source that gives a current access rule or closure.

  1. Clear Creek Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/clear-creek-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Clear Creek Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/clearcreek.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Clear Creek Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, Washington Fire Lookouts, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/clear_creek_lookout/wildcat_trail_311.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Clear Creek - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/clear-creek.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Washington lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Clear Creek Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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, 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.