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Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

French Point Lookout Site

Snohomish County 35-ft L-4 pole lookout, built 1934 or 1935, abandoned 1959; WWII aircraft-warning post 1942-43; tower gone, ruins reported.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removal date unknown; one account says it was knocked down or fell down before 1970 and ruins remain; a WillhiteWeb visit describes tower poles and footings in the brush

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Road gated and blocked with timbers about 200 feet up; about a mile of walking on decommissioned logging roads; decommissioned until the next timber harvest

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About a 1-mile walk on decommissioned logging roads past the gate; no standing tower to climb

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower35-foot wooden pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
1,400 ft (427 m)
Agency
Washington State Schools (administrator per the Former Fire Lookout Sites register)
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
48.26133, −121.78667
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-french-point

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. 1935 BuiltBuilt as a 35-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; photos dated July 15, 1935 exist; the register and Firelookout.com give 1934Sources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1942 EventActivated as Aircraft Warning Service Station 'Yoke 5-3' on July 29, 1942; sleeping quarters 10 x 12 added using AWS resourcesSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1943 EventAWS station inactivated July 1, 1943; Forest Service retained the site as a fire detection pointSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1943 and 1959
  5. 1959 AbandonedLookout discontinued and abandonedSources: discoverdarrington.com, willhiteweb.com, firetower.org
  6. No record between 1959 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered October 30, 2010; nominated by Irene PotterSource: firetower.org
  8. 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.

French Point is a former fire lookout in Snohomish County, about eight miles west of Darrington.1,2 It stood on a low knob on the floor of the Stillaguamish valley, and the tower was a 35-foot wooden pole structure with an L-4 cab.3,2 Most sources date it to 1935, and photographs on two of the history pages are dated July 15 of that year.3,4 The register and Firelookout.com give 1934 instead, so the build year is not settled.2,5

We did not find a source that names anyone who staffed the lookout as a fire watch. During the Second World War, the Aircraft Warning Service used the site as a station it called "Yoke 5-3".3 Forest Lookouts gives the station's dates as July 29, 1942 to July 1, 1943, and says a sleeping quarters measuring 10 by 12 was added using AWS resources.4 Afterward the Forest Service kept the site as a fire detection point.4 The lookout itself was shut down and left in 1959.2,4

Accounts differ on how the tower came down. The register says the removal date is unclear.2 Discover Darrington says the lookout was knocked down or fell down sometime before 1970, and that its ruins remain on site.1 Forest Lookouts lists it simply as removed.4

No source we read describes a standing tower. A WillhiteWeb visit found tower poles with old hardware in the brush, along with concrete footings.3 The same account describes a walk of about one mile on decommissioned logging roads, and says the trees have grown enough to block the views, so few are left.3

A gate and timbers block the road about 200 feet up, and the same page says it is decommissioned for now, pending the next timber harvest.3 The register places the site in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and names Washington State Schools as its administrator.2 Gates and road closures can change, so check the current status before you go.

  1. Fire Lookouts of Darrington, Discover Darrington, https://www.discoverdarrington.com/history-2/fire-lookouts-of-darrington/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. French Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/french-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. French Point Fire Lookout, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/french_point/stillaguamish_081.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. French Point, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/french-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. French Point Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/frenchpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of French Point Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Site remains
Site remainsPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Site remains
Site remainsPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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: design, height, ownership, 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, staffing, 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.