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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Granite Peak Lookout Site

A 1928 pole observation tower and cabin, followed in 1934 by a 10-ft pole L-4 lookout in Pend Oreille County; gone for many years, with relics left near the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone for many years; an undated visit found a bed frame, nails and a phone insulator near the summit and no lookout.

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. Reached by a hike of about 4.5 miles one way (WillhiteWeb). The sources describe no closure or permit.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 4.5 miles one way with roughly 1,200 feet of elevation gain, per WillhiteWeb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-ft pole L-4 tower with cab (1934), preceded by a 10-ft pole observation tower and frame cabin (1928)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1928
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,238 ft (1,597 m)
Agency
Washington State Division of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.61402, −117.43377
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-granite-peak

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 3.8 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. 1922 StaffedSam Poston named as lookout at Granite Peak in a Spokane Chronicle item quoted on Rex's Fire Lookout Page.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1926 StaffedGerald Dimmick named as lookout; late-June reports of four fires in the Dominion Mountain area.Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 Built10-foot pole observation tower and frame cabin.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1930 StaffedWilliam Lamoon named as lookout, starting June 19.Source: willhiteweb.com
  5. 1931 EventFire warden Art Linder connected the lookout phone line to Newport.Source: willhiteweb.com
  6. 1934 Built10-foot pole L-4 tower with cab, following the 1928 structure.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1934 and 1952
  8. 1952 StaffedLloyd Buckhouse is the only name on firelookout.com's known-personnel list.Source: firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1952 and 2012
  10. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered December 14, 2012 (US 1500, WA 400).Source: firetower.org
  11. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Granite Peak is a former lookout site in Pend Oreille County, about nine miles south of Ione. The site stands at 5,238 feet.1,2

A 10-foot pole observation tower and frame cabin went up in 1928. A 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab followed in 1934.3,2 The Washington State Division of Forestry administered the site.3

Lookouts show up in newspapers and histories from the early 1920s. Sam Poston was on the peak in 1922, according to a Spokane Chronicle item quoted on Rex's Fire Lookout Page.4 Gerald Dimmick was the lookout in 1926. By late June he had reported four fires in the Dominion Mountain area.2,4 William Lamoon took the post in 1930, starting on June 19.2 In 1931 the fire warden, Art Linder, connected the lookout's phone line to Newport.2 The only name on firelookout.com's known-personnel list is Lloyd Buckhouse, for 1952.1

The tower is long gone.3,1

A visitor's account, which is undated, describes a hike of about 4.5 miles one way with roughly 1,200 feet of climbing.2 It ends almost at the summit, where the writer found no lookout. What remained was a bed frame, nails and a phone insulator.2

No other source describes the site today.

  1. Granite Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/granitepeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Granite Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com: Fire Lookouts, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/granite_peak/lookout_183.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Granite Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/granite-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Granite Peak, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/granite-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Granite Peak 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, 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, 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

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