Fire lookout · Spokane County, Washington
Fire Lookout Museum Lookout (replica)
Also known as Fire Lookout Museum Lookout
Restored L-6 cab rebuilt from salvaged parts in Ray Kresek's Spokane yard; NHLR-registered 1999, open by appointment. Sources disagree on L-6 count and origin.
- Replica
- Restricted access
- Verified
Replica: A replica stands here, not the original structure.
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Restricted access
Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Open to the public by appointment, March through November; admission free; call ahead for reservations (museum page). Register says open by appointment with Ray Kresek.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerL-6 cab (8 x 8 ft wood USFS-design cab) rebuilt from salvaged parts, on a 6-ft wood tower; a separate 60-ft 1929 spar-tree replica stands beside it (museum page)The design: L-6
- Built of
- Logs
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 1,945 ft (593 m)
- Agency
- Fire Lookout Museum Association
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Spokane County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 47.74497, −117.41279
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-fire-lookout-museum-replica
View from the cab
What you see from the 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.
A replica stands here. The view is from its site at 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
- 1984 EventThe cab was honored with the highest awards at the 1984 Interstate Fair in Spokane (museum page)Source: firelookouts.com
- No record between 1984 and 1999
- 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 20, 1999 as US 328, WA 34; nominated by Ray Kresek, Washington RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
- TodayA replica standsA copy stands here, not the original structure.
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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Fire Lookout Museum Lookout stands in the backyard of Ray and Rita Kresek's home, about seven miles north of downtown Spokane, Washington.1,2,3 The National Historic Lookout Register lists it as US 328 and WA 34, and registered it on November 20, 1999.1
The register gives the cab's size as 8 by 8 feet, a wood USFS design, and says more than 200 of those cabs were once in place across the Pacific Northwest.1 The museum's own page says its cab is one of only two surviving L-6 towers from the 1930s, restored from what remained of the last of 200.2 The register tells a different story. It says the cab is assembled from parts taken from seven L-6 lookouts that were torn down, and that only three of the original cabs still stand where they were first put up.1 These sources do not agree on the count or the origin, so we report both. We found no source that dates when the cab was put together.
We found no source saying the cab was ever staffed as a working lookout. The 2025 Spokesman-Review profile of Ray Kresek says he got his start at 16 as a DNR fire lookout in the 1950s.3 The museum page also says the cab won the highest awards at the 1984 Interstate Fair in Spokane.2
The restored structure sits on a six-foot wood tower.1 Beside it stands a 60-foot replica of a 1929 spar-tree lookout, according to the museum page.2 A Forest Fire Lookout Association list labels the museum site a replica, but the register describes a restored structure.4,1
The museum is open to the public by appointment from March through November, and admission is free.2 The register says visits are by appointment with Ray Kresek.1 A June 2025 profile says visits from people interested in firefighting have tapered off.3 Because the cab sits in a private yard, call ahead. The sources do not say whether the cab can be climbed, so please do not climb it.
- Fire Lookout Museum Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/fire-lookout-museum-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fire Lookout Museum, Firelookouts.com, https://firelookouts.com/museum.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Wash. firefighter's legacy seeks to preserve fire lookouts, The Spokesman-Review via FireRescue1, https://www.firerescue1.com/off-duty/wash-firefighters-legacy-seeks-to-preserve-fire-lookouts (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Lookouts in Washington, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: name, type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, access, 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
- NHLR register entry US 328 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Fire Lookout Museum (Firelookouts.com) (opens another site)
- Wash. firefighter's legacy seeks to preserve fire lookouts (The Spokesman-Review via FireRescue1) (opens another site)
- FFLA Washington lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.