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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Cooks Mountain Lookout Site

A 1931 10-foot L-4 pole tower on Cooks Mountain near Usk; removed or destroyed on an unknown date, with footings reported on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower is gone. Sources say removed or destroyed, with no date; Willhite reports footings on the summit in an undated visit.

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 Forest Service land; Willhite reports no gate on the north approach from road NF-5015, and the road is in fair shape to the saddle north of the peak.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Park at the saddle north of the peak and hike up the north ridge; Willhite lists 0.4 miles and 650 feet of gain. Willhite reports only footings on the summit, so there is nothing to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,325 ft (1,318 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.35120, −117.17500
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-cooks-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. 1931 Built10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 2012
  3. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 14, 2012 as US 1491, WA 391; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  4. 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.

The Cooks Mountain lookout went up in 1931: a 10-foot pole tower topped with an L-4 cab, on a peak in Pend Oreille County.1,2 FireLookout.com places it about six miles northeast of Usk.3

The sources do not agree on how the tower ended, and none gives a date.1,2,3,4 The register says it is not clear when the tower was removed.1 FireLookout.com and Willhite say it was destroyed, with no date given.3,2 A lookout history site lists it as removed.4

Willhite, who hiked up the north ridge, found footings on the very top.2 He notes there is no gate on the north approach from road NF-5015, and says the road is in fair shape to the saddle north of the peak.2 He lists a hiking distance of 0.4 miles and an elevation gain of 650 feet.2 The site is on Forest Service land.2 Willhite's page describes footings on the summit.2 None of the four pages describes a standing tower.1,2,3,4

  1. Cooks Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/cooks-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cooks Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/cooks_mountain/lookout_171.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cooks Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/cooksmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cook Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/cook-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cooks Mountain 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, 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.