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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Graves Mountain Lookout (now at the Colville Museum)

Also known as Colville Museum, Graves Mountain Lookout Tower

Graves Mountain L-4 lookout cab on a 30-foot tower, moved piece by piece from the Colville National Forest to Colville in 1985 and now restored and open to the public.

Original site: Graves Mountain Lookout

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. The register says the restored lookout is open to the public daily; hours and climbing rules are not in the sources read.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot timber tower with an L-4 cab measuring 14 by 14 feet; replaced an earlier pole tower on the mountainThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Stevens County Historical Society
Land
Unknown
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
48.55139, −117.90782
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-graves-mountain-at-colville-museum

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.

Downloads about 4.4 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 BuiltPole tower and log cabin built on the original Graves Mountain site by the U.S. Forest Service and the CCC in 1934; the historical society says early 1930sSources: nhlr.org, stevenscountyhistoricalsociety.org
  2. 1944 StaffedA couple manned the lookout in 1944Source: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1955 Replaced by a new structureForest Service replaced the pole tower with a 30-foot timber tower and L-4 cabSources: nhlr.org, stevenscountyhistoricalsociety.org, firetower.org
  4. No record between 1955 and 1985
  5. 1985 MovedStevens County Historical Society moved the tower and cab piece by piece to Colville; the original site lost the tower that yearSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  6. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 1, 1999 as US 315, WA 31Source: nhlr.org
  7. Date unknown MovedMoved from Graves Mountain to the Colville Museum.Source: FFLA
  8. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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.

The first lookout on Graves Mountain stood in the Colville National Forest in Ferry County, Washington.1 It was a pole tower, with a small log cabin for living quarters on the ground below.2 Civilian Conservation Corps crews built it in the early 1930s, and the register dates the tower to 1934.2,3,4

Sources disagree on its height. The register and a former-lookout site record give 72 feet, while the Stevens County Historical Society says 75.4,1,2

A couple manned the lookout in 1944.3 In 1955 the Forest Service replaced that tower with a 30-foot timber tower and an L-4 cab, which the historical society says measured 14 by 14 feet.1,2 The historical society says the station worked for almost 50 years, while the register says the L-4 cab stood for 30 years.2,4

In 1985 the Stevens County Historical Society moved the tower and cab, piece by piece, to a museum in Colville.4 The register calls the new home the Stevens County Park and Museum.4 A former-lookout site record and another lookout history site place it next to the Keller Historical Museum, on a small hill overlooking the city.1,3 The site record says the tower was removed from the mountain that year.1

Today the register describes the restored lookout as open to the public daily, and it lists the historical society as the administrator.4 The sources we read do not give hours or say whether visitors may go up, so check with the museum before you go.

  1. Graves Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/graves-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Graves Mountain Lookout Tower, Stevens County Historical Society, http://stevenscountyhistoricalsociety.org/lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Graves Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/graves_mountain/lookout_179.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Graves Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/graves-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, register numbers, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.