FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Ferry County, Washington

Cody Butte Lookout

Ferry County tower built 1931 on the Colville Reservation; register says staffed most summers, one site says recently abandoned; permit needed for non-tribal visitors.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Non-tribal visitors need a recreation permit; a trip guide updated March 2026 gives $80 a year. Ask the Colville Tribes before going.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Road reaches near the summit; the final stretch is steep, rocky and rough, with a parking area before the worst of it (TrailChick: most people park and hike the last mile)
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower45-foot steel Aermotor tower; frame cabin below the summitThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1931
Height
45 ft (13.7 m)
Elevation
4,766 ft (1,453 m)
Agency
Colville Indian Reservation (administers); Colville National Forest (cooperator)
Land
Tribal land
Location
Ferry County, Washington
Coordinates
48.34129, −118.66244
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-cody-butte

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 3.9 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. 1931 BuiltRegister: built 1931 as a 45-foot steel Aermotor tower. Willhite: an inscription inside says the tower was finished June 19, 1931 at 11 a.m.Sources: nhlr.org, willhiteweb.com, trailchick.com
  2. 1931 First staffedWenatchee Daily World, September 14, 1931: Cody Butte and Lynx Creek lookouts relieved after Saturday night's rainSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1932 StaffedJuly 12, 1932 item names James Someday at the Cody Butte stationSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 StaffedJuly 17, 1943 Colville Examiner names Miss Ellen Adams, Mason City, on Cody Butte; teachers hired as summer fire lookouts on the Colville National ForestSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, trailchick.com
  5. No record between 1943 and 2022
  6. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 11, 2022 as US 1523, WA 72; nominated by Christine EstradaSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Cody Butte Lookout stands on the Colville Indian Reservation in Ferry County, Washington, about 20 miles northeast of Nespelem.1,2 According to one lookout-history site, a wall inscription inside the tower gives its completion as June 19, 1931, at 11 a.m.3 The register dates the tower to 1931 and describes it as a 45-foot steel Aermotor design.1 A frame cabin sits below the summit.3 The register says it is unknown whether that cabin dates from the same period.1

Newspaper items quoted on a Forest Lookouts page show the tower was staffed in its early years.4 A September 1931 Wenatchee paper reports that lookouts at Cody Butte and Lynx Creek were replaced after rain fell on a Saturday night.4 A July 1932 item places James Someday at Cody Butte.4 In July 1943, the Colville Examiner reported that many teachers were taking summer jobs as lookouts across the Colville National Forest, and named Miss Ellen Adams, from Mason City, at Cody Butte.4,5

Recent use is disputed. The register says the lookout "has been staffed most summers," and firelookout.com repeats that.1,2 The Willhite site, whose photo captions run from 1934 to 2016, says the tower seems to have been recently abandoned, and that the cabin below also looks abandoned.3 A trip guide whose author visited in May 2019 does not say whether the tower is staffed.5

The Colville Indian Reservation administers the lookout, and the Colville National Forest is a cooperator.1 The register records it as US 1523 and WA 72, with registration on April 11, 2022, nominated by Christine Estrada.1

The lookout sits on tribal land.5 A trip guide last updated in March 2026 says non-tribal visitors must buy a recreation permit, which it puts at $80 a year, so ask the Colville Tribes before going.5 Two sites describe a rough last stretch of road, with parking before the worst of it.5,3 The trip guide also warns that the tower floor is not very robust and advises caution on the climb.5

  1. Cody Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/cody-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cody Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/codybutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Cody Butte Fire Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com Washington Fire Lookouts, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/cody_butte/tower_072.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Cody Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/cody-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Cody Butte, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/cody-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Cody Butte Lookout - 2019
Cody Butte Lookout - 2019 (2019)Photo: Christine Estrada, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cody Butte in 1998
Cody Butte in 1998 (1998)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Cody Butte Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.com) · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: design, photos, 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. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: height, photos TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.