FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Granite Mountain Lookout Site

Okanogan NF site of a 1930 log cabin with cupola on Granite Mountain; cabin removed or destroyed in 1954; hiking trail to the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin removed or destroyed in 1954; remains taken away in 1973; no source found describes what remains at the summit now

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. A Forest Service trail runs all the way to the old site; no closure appears in the sources read

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 5.5 miles one way from a trailhead off Forest Service roads southwest of Conconully; fire hit the upper trail and deadfall was cut in 2019

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabLog cabin with cupola, built 1930The design: Cupola house
Built of
Logs
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,366 ft (2,245 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.49647, −119.89715
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-granite-mountain

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. 1930 BuiltLog cabin with cupolaSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1934 EventPanorama photographs taken from the cabin, 17 feet above groundSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1954
  4. 1954 DestroyedRegister says removed; firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1956 EventUSGS party visited the summit and did not report a lookout buildingSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1956 and 1973
  7. 1973 RemovedForest Helitack crew removed the remains of the old lookout and built a helispotSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1973 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFFLOS US 1448, WA 348, registered November 17, 2012Source: firetower.org
  10. 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.

On Granite Mountain in the Okanogan National Forest, about 8 miles southwest of Conconully, a log cabin with a cupola went up in 1930.1,2 In 1934 panorama photographs were taken from the cabin, which stood 17 feet above the ground.3,4

Sources differ on how the cabin ended.1,2,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says it was removed in 1954, while firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say it was destroyed that year.1,2,3 A U.S. Geological Survey party visited the summit in 1956 and did not report a lookout building there.3 In 1973 a forest helitack crew removed the remains of the old lookout and built a helispot for pre-attack fire control, according to a newspaper report.3,4

The trail runs all the way to the old lookout site, about 5.5 miles one way from a trailhead off Forest Service roads southwest of Conconully.3 Fire hit the upper section of the trail, and deadfall was cut out in 2019, with the Forest Service maintaining the trail.3 A 2025 trip report describes much of the upper mountain as burned over.5 No source I found describes what, if anything, remains at the summit today.

  1. Granite Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/granite-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Granite Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/granitemtnok.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Granite Mountain Lookout Site - Conconully, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/granite_mountain_lookout/conconully_116.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Granite Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Washington Forest Lookouts index, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/granite-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Granite Mtn (Conconully), Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report-2025-06-14.213044762626 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Granite Mountain 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.