FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Skagit County, Washington

Dock Butte Lookout Site

Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie NF peak in Skagit County, WA: a 1935 L-4 cab, removed, destroyed or burned in 1964. A Forest Service trail leads 1.5 miles to the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The 1935 L-4 cab was gone by 1964. Sources disagree on whether it was removed, destroyed or burned. Nothing is described as standing.

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. Trail 604.1 from the Blue Lake/Dock Butte Trailhead, where a recreation pass is required. The trail itself is not named in any closure. The trail page's active alert says FSR 12 and FSR 1230, the road to the parking area, will be closed for repairs in August; the alert gives no year.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Trail 604.1: 0.2 miles from the Blue Lake trailhead to the Dock Butte junction, then 1.5 miles to the lookout site; the last half mile is moderately steep and exposed. Carry water; none is available at the site. No structure remains to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab, built around 1935The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,210 ft (1,588 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skagit County, Washington
Coordinates
48.63928, −121.80663
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-dock-butte

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 4.3 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 BuiltL-4 cab built around 1935Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 EventPanoramic photographs taken from the lookout on September 18, 1935Sources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 EventUSGS placed some benchmarks and mentioned the lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1939 and 1964
  5. 1964 DestroyedFireLookout.com and the Willhite guide say destroyed; the Forest Service trail page says the building was burnedSources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com, fs.usda.gov
  6. 1964 RemovedThe Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the L-4 cab was removedSource: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1964 and 2012
  8. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered March 26, 2012 as US 1239, WA 139Source: firetower.org
  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.

Dock Butte is a peak in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, in Skagit County, Washington, about nine miles south of Mount Baker.1,2 Around 1935 an L-4 cab was built there, and panoramic photographs were taken on September 18 of that year.3,4 The register credits those panoramas to the National Archives Pacific Northwest Region.1 In 1939 the U.S. Geological Survey placed some benchmarks and mentioned the lookout.3

The sources agree on the year the cab ended, 1964, but not on how. FireLookout.com and the Willhite guide say it was destroyed.2,3 The register says it was removed.1 The Forest Service trail page says the building was burned.5

The Forest Service calls the place the site of an abandoned fire lookout, reached on Trail 604.1.5 From the Blue Lake trailhead the trail runs 0.2 miles to the Dock Butte junction, then 1.5 miles to the site. The last half mile is moderately steep and exposed.5 Parking is at the end of Forest Service Road 1230, and a recreation pass is required at the trailhead.5 An active alert on the trail page says Forest Service roads 12 and 1230 will be closed for repairs in August. The alert gives no year, so check before you drive in.5 Visitors should bring drinking water, since the site has none.5 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the cab on the summit today.5

  1. Dock Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/dock-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Dock Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/dockbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Dock Butte - Blue Lake Trailhead, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/north_cascades/dock_butte_lookout/blue_lake_trail_100.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Dock Butte, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/dock-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Dock Butte Trail 604.1, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mbs/recreation/trails/dock-butte-trail-6041 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (N)
Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (N)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (SE)
Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (SE)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (SW)
Dock Butte Lookout panoramic 9-18-35 (SW)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via 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, 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.