FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Green Mountain Lookout

CCC-built 1933 L-4 lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, no longer staffed, saved from a 2012 removal order by a 2014 act of Congress.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Located in the Glacier Peak Wilderness; reaching it requires a wilderness trail hike, not a drive.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Summit of Green Mountain, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, about 17 miles east of Darrington per a lookout fan site.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1980s)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 style, 14 by 14 ft wood-frame ground house with exterior catwalk and cable anchor systemThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,383 ft (1,946 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
48.29140, −121.23845
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-green-mountain

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. 1933 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps to a standard Forest Service L-4 design.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 1950
  3. 1950 AlteredRoof replaced and walls, windows and doors repaired after heavy snowfall damage.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1950 and 1968
  5. 1968 EventThe Glacier Peak Wilderness was enlarged to take in the lookout, which later made its upkeep controversial.Source: wta.org
  6. No record between 1968 and 1987
  7. 1987 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places with five other wilderness lookouts on the forest.Source: wta.org
  8. 1988 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 1988 (per Wikipedia infobox).Source: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 1991 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register October 28, 1991.Source: nhlr.org
  10. 1994 ClosedClosed to the public because of structural deterioration and threatened with removal.Source: preservewa.org
  11. 1995 ClosedClosed to the public in the mid-1990s due to a damaged foundation and catwalk.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  12. 1999 EventListed among the state's Most Endangered Places; a Trust grant and a $50,000 federal Save America's Treasures award went toward rehabilitation.Source: preservewa.org
  13. 2000 RestoredFirst rehabilitation work, which did not allow for snow load; the lookout was later taken apart and flown out for repair off site.Source: preservewa.org
  14. 2002 RemovedBuilding dismantled piece by piece after its new foundation was damaged by snowfall; pieces flown out by helicopter for repair.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  15. 2003 RestoredHundreds of volunteer hours went into rehabilitating the dismantled lookout between 2003 and 2008.Source: preservewa.org
  16. 2009 RestoredFoundation repaired and the lookout reconstructed on site, with pieces helicoptered back up after road-washout delays in 2003 and 2006.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  17. 2012 EventFederal court in Seattle sided with Wilderness Watch's lawsuit and ordered the structure removed.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  18. 2014 EventGreen Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, blocking removal.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  19. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Green Mountain Lookout sits at the summit of Green Mountain, deep in what is now the Glacier Peak Wilderness of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1933 to a standard Forest Service plan: a single-story, 14-by-14-foot wood-frame cab with an exterior catwalk and a cable system to anchor it against mountain winds.1 It is one of the classic "L-4" style ground houses that were once common across the Pacific Northwest.2

The lookout held up to decades of severe winter weather, though not without damage. In 1950 crews replaced the roof and repaired walls, windows and doors after a bad winter's snow load the year before.1 It kept its fire-detection role into the 1980s, but by the mid-1990s the building had deteriorated enough — a damaged foundation and catwalk — that the Forest Service closed it to the public.1 Around that time the Friends of Green Mountain, one of the first volunteer groups of its kind, began a long restoration effort.2

The repair work did not go smoothly. In 2002, after a newly installed foundation was itself wrecked by snowfall, the Forest Service had the whole building dismantled and flown out piece by piece for off-site repair.1 Road washouts delayed the project further in 2003 and 2006. The foundation was finally fixed in 2009, and the lookout was reassembled on the summit, with its pieces flown back up by helicopter.1

That helicopter use became a legal flashpoint. In 2010 the group Wilderness Watch sued the Forest Service, arguing the agency had broken wilderness law by using motorized aircraft for the restoration. A federal court in Seattle agreed in 2012 and ordered the lookout removed. The ruling set off a fight in Congress: Senator Patty Murray introduced the Green Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act, which barred removal of the structure unless it threatened public safety. Congress passed it and President Obama signed it into law in 2014, overriding the court order.1 The National Trust for Historic Preservation backed the bill, and in nearby Darrington the news reportedly drew a standing ovation for the mayor.1

The lookout has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since February 1988 and on the National Historic Lookout Register since October 1991.1,2 It is no longer staffed for fire detection, but thanks to the Friends of Green Mountain it still stands, restored, atop its granite summit.2

  1. Green Mountain Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mountain_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Green Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/green-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Green Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Green Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Green Mtn. L.O.
Green Mtn. L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Green Mountain Lookout
Photo: ECTran71, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Photo of Green Mountain Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.com) · 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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 19 Oct 2026
  4. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, dates, photos, 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
  5. Washington Trust for Historic Preservation Gave us: dates, links Washington Trust for Historic Preservation (preservewa.org); Washington Trails Association (wta.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, what happened). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the page it comes from. The position is copied from the NHLR record. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: what it is built of, register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. 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
  9. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: photos, links TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  10. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.