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Fire lookout · Grays Harbor County, Washington

Colonel Bob Lookout Site

Olympic National Forest summit lookout, an L-4 or R-6 cab built about 1931-1934 and gone by 1967; sources disagree on build year and how it ended; no source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed, burned or destroyed in 1967, depending on the source; no source describes what remains on the summit

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. On Olympic National Forest land with its own wilderness area and a hiking trail to the summit; no closure described; no source describes the summit today

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Seven-mile hike, reached by following South Shore Lake Quinault Road about 6 miles from Highway 101

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 gable cab per three sources; 14x14 standard R-6 ground house per a structural inventory entry quoted by Forest LookoutsThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
14 ft (4.3 m)
Elevation
4,492 ft (1,369 m)
Agency
U.S.Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Grays Harbor County, Washington
Coordinates
47.48858, −123.74590
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-colonel-bob

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.0 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 BuiltBuilt on or before 1931 per WillhiteWeb; a newspaper item of August 30, 1931 already describes the summit residence. Build year conflicts with 1932 and 1933 (see resolved_conflicts).Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 First staffedMr. and Mrs. F.B. Hall lived in the one-room residence as the summer lookout staff; the 1931 newspaper item calls it a Forest Service fire lookout stationSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 EventGile and Sadie Mead spent a honeymoon in the 14-by-14-foot glass house, per a 1933 newspaper itemSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 EventStructural inventory entry: a wood 14x14 standard R-6 plan ground house was constructed on the Quinault Ranger DistrictSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1943 StaffedPhoto caption names Harold Deery as lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. 1946 AbandonedSource: willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1946 and 1966
  8. 1966 EventLookout house partially destroyed by the weatherSource: willhiteweb.com
  9. 1967 BurnedWillhiteWeb says it was burned as it was considered a safety hazardSource: willhiteweb.com
  10. 1967 DestroyedFire Lookout says destroyedSource: firelookout.com
  11. 1967 RemovedFFLOS and Forest Lookouts say the house was removedSources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. No record between 1967 and 2011
  13. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFFLOS US 1162, registered February 19, 2011Source: firetower.org
  14. 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.

Colonel Bob is a peak of 4,492 feet in Grays Harbor County, Washington, inside the Olympic National Forest.1 A Forest Service fire lookout once stood on its summit.2 The sources do not agree on when it went up. The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register gives 1933, and Fire Lookout gives 1932.1,3 WillhiteWeb says it was built on or before 1931, and a newspaper item from August 1931 describes a one-room residence on the peak.4,2 A structural inventory entry, quoted by Forest Lookouts, records a 14-by-14-foot standard R-6 ground house built in 1934.2 Three sources call the cab an L-4 design instead.1,3,4

Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Hall lived in that residence in the summer of 1931.2 The same newspaper item also described a structure whose walls were nearly all glass.2 In August 1933, newlyweds Gile and Sadie Mead honeymooned in a glass-walled lookout measuring 14 by 14 feet, according to another newspaper item.2 A photo caption dated 1943 on WillhiteWeb names Harold Deery as the lookout.4

The lookout was abandoned in 1946.4 Weather partly destroyed the house in 1966.4 Sources disagree on how it ended in 1967. The Register and Forest Lookouts say it was removed.1,2 WillhiteWeb says it was burned as a safety hazard,4 and Fire Lookout says it was destroyed.3

Nothing we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, so we cannot say. The peak sits inside its own wilderness area, and a hiking trail climbs to the summit.4 WillhiteWeb gives the hike as seven miles, reached by following the South Shore Lake Quinault Road about six miles from Highway 101.4 Check current trail and access conditions with the Olympic National Forest before you go.

  1. Colonel Bob Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/colonel-bob-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Colonel Bob - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/colonel-bob.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Colonel Bob Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/colonelbob.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Colonel Bob - Colonel Bob Wilderness, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_climbing/colonel_bob/lake_quinault_hikes_085.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Colonel Bob Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1932
1932 (1932)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, 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: what it is built of, design, height, 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.