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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Crowell Ridge Lookout Site

Pend Oreille County, WA: gable-roofed L-4 cab built 1929 on the Colville NF; ruins and remnants remain; reached by a 4.2-mile hike.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab not standing; the register says ruins may still be found, and WillhiteWeb documents remnants

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. Hike through the Salmo-Priest Wilderness; WillhiteWeb describes several trailhead starting points

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 4.2 miles one way with 1,400 feet of gain from a trailhead; the summit is a short side trip off the Crowell Ridge Trail

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabGable-roofed L-4 cab, built 1929The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,835 ft (2,083 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Colville National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.90390, −117.18418 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-crowell-ridge

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 4.0 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. 1929 BuiltGable-roofed L-4 cab builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1929 First staffedAlec Muffelbonn, per WillhiteWebSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1935 StaffedBill Nelson, summer lookoutSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1935 and 2012
  5. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 14, 2012 (FFLOS US 1492)Source: firetower.org
  6. 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.

Crowell Ridge sits in Pend Oreille County, in the Colville National Forest.1 The ridge lies in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness.2

A gable-roofed L-4 cab went up in 1929.1,3,2 Alec Muffelbonn was the lookout that year, according to WillhiteWeb.2 There was also a patrol lookout about three miles north-northeast, on Gypsy Peak.1

In 1935 Bill Nelson was the summer lookout.2 A Newport Miner report dated August 22, 1935, quoted on Forest Lookouts, says Nelson cut a forefinger with an axe and spent a couple of days in the hospital.4

The register lists the summit at 6,835 feet, while WillhiteWeb gives 6,895 feet.1,2

The register notes that ruins may survive at the site.1,3 WillhiteWeb says the structure was not burned, so a considerable amount remains, though images over the years document its slow decline.2 Its photo captions list a bed frame, a phone line in a tree near the summit, and a roof on the hillside in 2025.2

The site is reached on foot.2 WillhiteWeb gives a hike of 4.2 miles one way with 1,400 feet of gain, and says the summit is a short side trip from the Crowell Ridge Trail.2

  1. Crowell Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/crowell-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Crowell Ridge Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/crowell_ridge/lookout_172.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Crowell Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/crowellridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Crowell Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/crowell-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Crowell Ridge 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 1.8 km (1.1 mi).

    • FFLOS: 48.90390, −117.18418
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 48.89131, −117.20052

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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, 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.