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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Coldwater Mountain Lookout Site

Also known as Coldwater Peak, Coldwater

Ground-mounted L-4 cab on Coldwater Peak from 1935 to 1968; the cabin is gone and the summit now holds research instruments, reached by a hiking trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cabin was removed in 1968; the summit now holds research instruments, not a lookout.

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. Summit reached by a hiking trail in Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument; the winter road is gated at Coldwater Lake and the trail starts about a mile past the gate.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike from the Johnson Visitors Center area. The cabin was removed, so there is no lookout to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabGround-mounted L-4 cab, no towerThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,727 ft (1,746 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.29982, −122.18196
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-coldwater-mountain

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. 1935 BuiltDeveloped as a ground-mounted L-4 cab; Wikipedia gives the lookout years as 1935 to 1968Sources: en.wikipedia.org, firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1937 StaffedA July 1937 item says the Cold Water Peak lookout position was being filled by an experienced manSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1937 and 1964
  4. 1964 ClosedA May 1964 item says three Spirit Lake district lookouts, one named Coldwater Creek, would close that summer except for possible emergency use; the item does not explicitly name this cabinSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1968 RemovedCabin removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1968 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 23, 2012 as US 1310, WA 210; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Coldwater Peak, inside the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, held a fire lookout from 1935 to 1968.1 The register describes it as a ground-mounted L-4 cab, a cabin set on the ground rather than on a tower, and says it had one of the choicest views of Mount St. Helens.2,3

A July 1937 item, quoted on a lookout history site, reports that an experienced man was filling the Cold Water Peak post on the Columbia Forest.4 A May 1964 Longview Daily News item quoted on the same site says three Spirit Lake district lookouts, one of them named Coldwater Creek, would shut that summer, with possible emergency use the only exception.4 The site does not say whether that name refers to this cabin.4

The cabin was removed in 1968, so it was gone before the 1980 eruption came.2,5 The register adds that had it survived until 1980, the eruption would have wiped it out.2

Today the summit is reached by a hiking trail, and Wikipedia describes it as the former lookout site, now used for research instruments.1 Willhite describes hiking from the Johnson Visitors Center.3 In winter the road up to Johnson Ridge Visitors Center is shut at a gate by Coldwater Lake, but the trail begins about a mile past that gate.3 None of the pages read describe tower footings or other remains of the lookout on the summit.

  1. Coldwater Peak, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldwater_Peak (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Coldwater Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/coldwater-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Coldwater Peak & Coldwater Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/fire_lookouts/coldwater_peak_lookout/st_helens_254.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Coldwater Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/coldwater-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Coldwater Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/coldwater.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Coldwater Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout with view of Mount St. Helens in 1958
Lookout with view of Mount St. Helens in 1958 (1958)Photo: 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, 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, 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.