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Fire lookout · Pacific County, Washington

Cowan Point Lookout Site

Also known as Cowan Peak

Pacific County WA tower site: 20-ft L-4 tower 1947, lost 1953 to storm or fire (sources differ), replacement abandoned 1967; no standing structure described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Replacement tower abandoned in 1967 and since removed or probably destroyed; sources differ

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 DNR road that Willhite calls well traveled and built for any vehicle; no gate or closure mentioned

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive to a parking area, then an old road uphill into the timber; Willhite lists a quarter mile and 100 feet of gain

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot wooden tower with L-4 cab (the replacement tower, 1953)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1947
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,940 ft (591 m)
Agency
Washington State Division of Forestry/DNR
Land
State land
Location
Pacific County, Washington
Coordinates
46.41692, −123.78102
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-cowan-point

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. 1947 Built20-foot wooden L-4 tower; firetower.org says it burned by accidentSources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org
  2. 1952 EventTower named Cowan Peak; announced as run cooperatively by the association, the State Division of Forestry and WeyerhaeuserSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1953 BuiltReplacement 20-foot tower with L-4 cab, built later in 1953; named for Major Charles S. CowanSources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org
  4. 1953 DestroyedJanuary 1953 storm; Willhite and a February 1953 Longview newspaper say it was demolished by the stormSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1959 EventLookout William F. Glover, 21, died at his station, overcome by heating gas (Daily Chronicle)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1967 AbandonedReplacement tower abandoned; firetower.org says since removed, others say probably destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1967 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 27, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  9. 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.

The lookout stood on Cowan Peak in Pacific County, Washington.1 Firetower.org lists the site as Cowan Point, at 1,940 feet (591 meters).2 It is about five miles north-northeast of Naselle.3

A 20-foot wooden L-4 tower went up in 1947.1 Firetower.org says that first tower burned by accident.2 In June 1952 the tower was named Cowan Peak, and a newspaper reported it would be run cooperatively by the Washington Forest Fire Association, the State Division of Forestry and the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company.4

In January 1953 a three-day storm hit the area. Willhite says winds of 112 miles per hour demolished the Washington Forest Fire Association lookout on the peak.1 A Longview newspaper reported the same in February.4 The sources disagree about how the first tower was lost: Firetower.org says it burned, while Willhite and the 1953 newspaper point to the storm.2,1,4

A second 20-foot tower with an L-4 cab went up later in 1953.1,2 Willhite says it was named in honor of Major Charles S. Cowan, then manager of the Washington Forest Fire Association.1

In July 1959 William F. Glover, a 21-year-old lookout, died at his station. A newspaper reported he was overcome by heating gas during his first week of work for the state.4

The second tower was abandoned in 1967.2 Firetower.org says it has since been removed.2 FireLookout.com and Willhite say it was probably destroyed soon after.3,1

Willhite describes the route as a DNR road that any vehicle can use, ending at a parking area near the site. From there an old road climbs into the timber, and the site is reached on foot. He lists the distance as a quarter mile, with 100 feet of gain.1 No source describes a standing structure today. The photo captions list three footings at the site, but his page does not date the visit.1

  1. Cowan Peak Lookout Site - Pacific County, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/cowen_peak_lookout/radar_hill_184.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cowan Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/cowan-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cowan Point Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/cowanpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cowan Point - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/cowan-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cowan Point 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, register numbers, agency, 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: ownership, 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.