FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Dry Canyon Lookout Site

Pend Oreille County, WA: 1937 10-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, removed or destroyed in the 1950s; no source describes what remains on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in the 1950s; no source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Willhite: drive a gravel road to its end (high clearance advised), then walk about 0.25 miles one way, gaining 150 feet, partly bushwhacking. The road ends in a different place than the map shows.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, built 1937The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1937
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,770 ft (1,149 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Colville National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.67380, −117.35386
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-dry-canyon

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. 1937 Built10-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1950 RemovedDecade only: 1950s. The Register says removed; firelookout.com and Willhite say destroyed. The Forest Lookouts page lists it as removed.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1950 and 2012
  4. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 14, 2012 as US 1494, WA 394; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  5. 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.

Dry Canyon Lookout stood in Pend Oreille County, on Colville National Forest land.1 The Register gives the elevation as 3,770 feet, while Willhite lists 3,778 feet for the lookout.1,2

The lookout was built in 1937 as a 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,3,2

The Register says the tower was removed in the 1950s, while firelookout.com and Willhite both say it was destroyed in that decade.1,3,2 The Forest Lookouts page also lists the site as removed.4

Willhite is the most detailed source we found, but his text does not describe what remains on the summit.2 His two photos captioned "Summit in 2024" have no description.2

To reach the site, go to Ione, cross the Ione Bridge, and take Sullivan Lake Road about four miles to the signed Dry Canyon Road.2 At a three-way junction, take the rightmost road, which is much rougher than the other two.2 Willhite advises high clearance and good tires for that road.2 The road ends at a wide grassy spot.2 From there, the site is about a quarter mile on foot. The old road, which is no longer drivable, fades out about halfway, and the rest is bushwhacking through mostly easy open terrain.2 Willhite notes that the road ends somewhere other than where the map shows it.2 Check current access before you go.

  1. Dry Canyon Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/dry-canyon-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Dry Canyon Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/dry_canyon/lookout_173.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Dry Canyon Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/drycanyon.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Dry Canyon - Forest Lookouts, Washington forest lookouts website, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/dry-canyon.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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, 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.