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Fire lookout · Lewis County, Washington

Hawkeye Lookout Site

Cupola cabin built 1927 on Hawkeye Point in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, abandoned in 1933 for fog and gone by 1966; the summit has a benchmark, and no cabin remains are described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cabin was gone by 1966. No source describes remains of it on the summit.

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. In the Goat Rocks Wilderness and reached on foot. No closure is described in the sources.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
WillhiteWeb lists 5 miles one way with 3,300 ft of gain. TrailChick's 2017 loop started at the Berry Patch trailhead near Chambers Lake and climbed a boot path from the Lily Basin trail junction.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabCupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1927
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,431 ft (2,265 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Gifford Pinchot National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lewis County, Washington
Coordinates
46.52238, −121.49324
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-hawkeye

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 3.5 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. 1927 BuiltCupola cabin built on the summit; the first lookout built in the Packwood District.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1927 First staffedUsed from 1927 to 1933 according to WillhiteWeb.Source: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1929 EventPanoramic photos taken from the lookout.Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1933 AbandonedAbandoned because fog too often enveloped the peak. TrailChick reports heavy fog forced the change.Sources: willhiteweb.com, trailchick.com
  5. 1933 EventA replacement lookout was built down the ridge at Goat Ridge. It is a separate site.Sources: willhiteweb.com, trailchick.com
  6. 1933 Last staffedLast year of use according to WillhiteWeb.Source: willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1933 and 1956
  8. 1956 EventA newspaper item says foresters stopped using the station several years earlier, citing its elevation and low cloud.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1966 DestroyedRegister says gone by 1966. WillhiteWeb says it likely burned that year. TrailChick says destroyed in the mid-1960s.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  10. No record between 1966 and 2012
  11. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 24, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  12. 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.

Hawkeye Point is a 7,431-foot summit in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, about 11 miles southeast of Packwood in Lewis County.1,2,3

A cupola cabin went up on the summit in 1927, the first lookout built in the Packwood District.3 It was used from 1927 to 1933.4 WillhiteWeb's page includes a 1928 journal kept by the honeymoon couple who staffed the lookout, and panoramic photos were taken from the cabin in 1929.4,5

Fog ended its run. WillhiteWeb says the lookout was abandoned in 1933 because fog too often enveloped the peak and impaired visibility, and a replacement went up down the ridge at Goat Ridge.4 TrailChick also reports that heavy fog forced the change.3

The building stood for many years after it was abandoned. USGS survey parties mentioned it in the 1940s, and a 1956 newspaper reported that foresters had stopped using the station several years before, because its elevation was too great and low cloud often hid the forest from view.4,5 The register says it was gone by 1966. WillhiteWeb thinks it likely burned that year, while TrailChick says it was destroyed sometime in the mid-1960s.1,4,3

The summit is reached on foot. WillhiteWeb lists a hike of about five miles one way with 3,300 feet of gain.4 TrailChick's 2017 loop reached it by a steep boot path that climbs roughly 800 feet over three-quarters of a mile from the Lily Basin trail junction.3 TrailChick found the broad summit a nice picnic spot with a summit benchmark, and WillhiteWeb says the original USGS benchmark was stamped Hawkeye L.O. 1938.4,3 None of the sources describes what, if anything, remains of the cabin itself.

  1. Hawkeye Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, firetower.org, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/hawkeye-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Hawkeye Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/hawkeye.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Goats Rocks Loop: Goat Ridge and Hawkeye Point Lookout Sites, TrailChick, https://trailchick.com/goats-rocks-loop-goat-ridge-and-hawkeye-lookout-sites/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Hawkeye Point Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/hawkeye_point_lookout/goat_rocks_310.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Hawkeye, Forest Lookouts (Washington), quoting the White Bluffs Spokesman and The Daily Chronicle, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/hawkeye.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hawkeye Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hawkeye Lookout (no date)
Hawkeye Lookout (no date)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (NE)
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (NE) (1929)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (NW)
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (NW) (1929)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (S)
Hawkeye Lookout panoramic 1929 (S) (1929)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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, 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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