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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Cliff Ridge Lookout Site

Stevens County, WA tower with an L-4 cab, built 1937 by the Resettlement Administration; staffed in 1940; destroyed or removed in the 1950s; footings remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed or removed in the 1950s (sources differ on the word); footings remain below the summit at the old lookout site per Willhite's photos

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Reached by a hike on National Forest land from Sand Canyon Road and Major Road; Willhite's route notes are dated 2023 and describe an overgrown trail; no closure is described

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike of 1.3 miles each way with about 600 feet of gain; old summit road is now an overgrown trail (Willhite, 2023 route notes)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower45-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab on topThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1937
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,785 ft (1,154 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
48.41993, −117.68772
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-cliff-ridge

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 3.9 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. 1937 BuiltResettlement Administration built a 45-foot tower with an L-4 cab, per Willhite and the July 1937 Colville Examiner itemSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1939 EventLookouts installed on Cliff Ridge and Huckleberry Mountain as part of the Kaniksu ranger program (May 1939); a phone line was installed the same yearSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1940 StaffedKaniksu Forest Service placed Ray Bailey on the lookoutSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1950 Destroyed1950s (decade only). Willhite and firelookout.com say destroyed; the Register says removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1950 and 2012
  6. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 14, 2012 as US 1490, WA 390; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Cliff Ridge sits east of Chewelah in Stevens County, Washington, at 3,785 feet.1,2

In 1937 the lookout went up under the Resettlement Administration.3 Its tower was 45 feet high, with an L-4 cab on top.3 That July the Colville Examiner quoted a Mr. Whiting saying the lookout covered about 70 percent of the district, and that a lookout with 50 percent coverage counted as very good.2

The Colville Examiner reported in May 1939 that lookouts had been installed on Cliff Ridge and Huckleberry Mountain as part of the Kaniksu ranger program.2 Willhite says a phone line was installed that year.3 Willhite also says that in 1938 timberland the Resettlement Administration had managed passed to the Kaniksu National Forest, which had only just been formed.3 In 1940 the Kaniksu Forest Service assigned Ray Bailey to the lookout.2,3

The sources disagree on how the lookout ended. Willhite says it was destroyed in the 1950s.3 The Register says it was removed in that decade,1 and firelookout.com says it was destroyed.4

Today Willhite's photos show footings below the summit, at the old lookout site, and a directional benchmark is set in one of them.3 One footing is almost under the dirt.3 No source we read describes a standing structure at the site.

Willhite's directions run north on Sand Canyon Road from Chewelah, then onto Major Road into the National Forest, and about a mile past a gated road to the start of the trail.3 The hike is 1.3 miles each way with about 600 feet of gain.3 The old summit road has become an overgrown trail, and Willhite warns that the route will be lost without more trail work.3

  1. Cliff Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/cliff-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cliff Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/cliff-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cliff Ridge Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/cliff_ridge/lookout_170.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cliff Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/cliffridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cliff Ridge 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, 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.