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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Grassy Knoll Lookout Site

Grassy Knoll, Skamania County WA: 10-ft L-4 cab built 1934, replaced 1952, rebuilt after a 1953 windstorm, then gone; a hike to a meadow with lookout remnants reported.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. No standing lookout is described. The sources give no date for when the rebuilt cab was removed or destroyed.

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 hiking trail from a dirt road with potholes, per WillhiteWeb. No closure is described in the sources read.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
The trail starts in a meadow and climbs the ridge. WillhiteWeb puts the first knoll at 1.5 miles, with the main knoll after more ups and downs.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot wooden L-4 cab (1934); 1952 replacement cab of 15 or 20 feet, depending on sourceThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
500 ft (152.4 m)
Elevation
3,649 ft (1,112 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
45.81515, −121.75549
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-grassy-knoll

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 3.7 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. 1934 Built10-foot wooden L-4 cab, about 2.5 miles southeast of the Big Huckleberry lookoutSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1952
  3. 1952 Replaced by a new structureReplacement cab 15 feet per FFLOS; 20 feet per firelookout.com and WillhiteWebSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1953 DestroyedHigh winds blew the station down and demolished it. One June 1953 article says 'last year' (1952); another says January 1953.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1953 RebuiltRebuilt in June 1953 as a 14-foot-square building, with materials dropped by parachute and the timbers packed in by muleSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1953 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFFLOS US 1318, WA 218, registered June 24, 2012Source: 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.

Grassy Knoll is a meadow in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Skamania County.1,2 A 10-foot wooden L-4 lookout cab went up there in 1934, about 2.5 miles southeast of the Big Huckleberry lookout.3,4,1

All three web sources give that year and say the cab was replaced in 1952.3,4,1 They disagree on the new cab's size. Former Fire Lookout Sites (FFLOS) says 15 feet, while firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say 20 feet.3,4,1

June 1953 newspaper accounts say high winds blew the station down and demolished it.2 One places that in the year before, and another says January 1953.2 By late June the Forest Service had dropped about half of the 20 tons of materials for a 14-foot-square building by parachute. It planned to pack in the rest by mule over about a month, to have the lookout up before the fire season.2

The sources give no date for when the rebuilt cab came down. FFLOS and firelookout.com call the date unclear, and WillhiteWeb has no word on it.3,4,1

WillhiteWeb's undated trail description says the knoll is a meadow reached by a dirt road with potholes and then a hiking trail.1 That route was formerly the Pacific Crest Trail.1 WillhiteWeb describes meadow flowers, long views and what is left of the lookout, and says all four anchors are still there.1

  1. Grassy Knoll Trail & Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/grassy_knoll/gifford_pinchot_national_forest_320.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Grassy Knoll, Forest Lookouts (quoting The Oregonian, June 1953), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/grassy-knoll.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Grassy Knoll Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/grassy-knoll-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Grassy Knoll Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/grassyknoll.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Grassy Knoll 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, 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: height, 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, 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.