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Fire lookout · Kittitas County, Washington

Easton Ridge Lookout Site

Easton Ridge lookout, Kittitas County WA: 40-foot wooden L-4 tower built 1934, destroyed or removed in 1948; no source describes a standing structure today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed or removed in 1948; no source describes a standing structure at the site today

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Willhite: dirt and gravel road, high clearance recommended; the final spur to the summit is narrow

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot cable-braced wooden tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,850 ft (1,174 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Kittitas County, Washington
Coordinates
47.23240, −121.10380
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-easton-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.2 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt on a knob above Interstate 90 per Willhite; the Mountaineers list the lookout from 1934Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 EventPanorama photos taken from the roof on October 5, 1935Sources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1948 DestroyedFirelookout.com and Willhite say destroyed in 1948; FFLOS says removed in 1948Sources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1948 and 2012
  5. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 22, 2012 (FFLOS US 1400)Source: firetower.org
  6. 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 at the south end of Easton Ridge, in Kittitas County about nine miles west-northwest of Cle Elum.1,2,3 Willhite places it on a knob above Interstate 90 and dates it to 1934.4 It stood 40 feet high, was wooden and cable-braced, and carried an L-4 cab.2,3 Panorama photos were taken from its roof on October 5, 1935.5,4

The Mountaineers list the lookout as operating from 1934 to 1948.1 The register says it was removed in 1948, while firelookout.com and Willhite say it was destroyed that year.2,3,4

Willhite's photos are captioned 2017 and note an eye bolt anchor, nails and screws in the dirt, and lots of cans around, but the captions do not say whether any of it came from the lookout.4 A Mountaineers day-hike plan aimed for the spot where records place the lookout, at about 3,850 feet.1 Willhite describes the access road as dirt and gravel, with high clearance recommended, and the final spur to the summit as narrow but not too bad.4 No source describes a standing structure at the site today.2,3,5,4,1

  1. Day Hike - Easton Ridge, The Mountaineers, https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/activities/day-hike-easton-ridge-12 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Easton Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/easton-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Easton Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/eastonridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Easton Ridge Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/easton_ridge_lookout/hike_214.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Easton Ridge - Forest Lookouts, Washington Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/easton-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Easton 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.

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, height, 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.