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Fire lookout · Pierce County, Washington

Electron Lookout Site

Pierce County, WA: 40-ft L-6 pole tower dated 1947-48 near a 1942 house; removed 1963; 2016 visit found one leg and footings; private timberland, permit needed.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. Private timberland; Willhite says an expensive permit is required (2016 permit holder Hancock Forest Management)

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1963 (firelookout.com says destroyed); 2016 visit found one leg on the ground and three nearly buried footings

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Distance listed as drive-up on good gravel road; permit required on private timberland (Willhite, 2016)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40' pole tower with L-6 cab; 8 x 8 ft cab with pyramid roof and two-foot catwalkThe design: L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1948
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
2,435 ft (742 m)
Agency
Washington Division of Forestry/DNR
Land
Unknown
Location
Pierce County, Washington
Coordinates
47.01051, −122.10520
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-electron

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. 1942 EventFirst structure on the site was a house (Register); Willhite describes a 14 x 32 ft cabin built by the Aircraft Warning ServiceSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1944 EventAircraft Warning Service station Jig 2-7 used existing state facilities at the siteSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1948 Built40-ft pole tower with L-6 cab. Register and firelookout.com say 1948; the Forest Lookouts annual-report quote and Willhite say 1947Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1948 and 1963
  5. 1963 RemovedTower removed (Register, Forest Lookouts, Willhite); firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1963 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 26, 2012; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. 2016 EventWillhite site visit: one tower leg on the ground, three nearly buried footings, at least one movedSource: willhiteweb.com
  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 Electron lookout stood in Pierce County, Washington, in the Mount Rainier region.1 Firelookout.com places it 20 miles northwest of the mountain.2

According to the Register, the site's first building was a house, put up in 1942.1 Willhite describes a different 1942 building, a 14-by-32-foot cabin that the Aircraft Warning Service put up there.3 The Forest Lookouts site adds that an Aircraft Warning Service station called Jig 2-7 used existing state facilities at the site in 1944.4

The tower's date is disputed. The Register and firelookout.com both give 1948.1,2 The Forest Lookouts site quotes the 40th annual report of the Washington Forest Fire Association, filed under 1947, which describes building a lookout tower near Electron. Willhite also gives 1947.4,3

It was a 40-foot pole tower with an L-6 cab.1,3 Its legs were western red cedar and its bracing was fir. The cab was eight feet by eight feet with a pyramid roof, and a two-foot catwalk ran around it. People entered through a trap door in the floor.4 The living quarters were a former Aircraft Warning Service house beside the tower.4

The tower was removed in 1963.1,4,3 Firelookout.com uses the word destroyed for the same year.2

The Register lists the site as registered on May 26, 2012, nominated by Ray Kresek.1 Willhite visited in 2016 and found one tower leg still on the ground, along with three nearly buried footings, at least one of which had been moved.3 He describes the site as a drive-up, but the land is private timberland. In 2016 the company was Hancock Forest Management, and he says access needed an expensive permit, though the rules may have changed since then.3 He found the view poor right at the footings, though he says views open up within about 40 feet of them.3 We found no source that describes the site after that visit.

  1. Electron Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/electron-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Electron Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/electron.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Electron Lookout, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/electron_lookout/pictures_026.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Electron, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/electron.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Electron 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, 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, 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.