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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Site (Colville NF)

Also known as Huckleberry Mountain

Colville NF lookout on Huckleberry Mountain, Pend Oreille County: pole L-4 cab from the 1930s, timber R-6 tower from 1964, removed in 1979.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower and cab removed in 1979; WillhiteWeb photo captions (undated) mention footings and stairs

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
WillhiteWeb says the road is pretty good to near the top, a high-clearance SUV could easily make it to the top, and the last several hundred feet have some rocky sections

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (1930s); replaced in 1964 by a 20-foot treated timber tower with R-6 cabThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,472 ft (1,668 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Colville National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.76102, −117.54304
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-huckleberry-mountain-colville-nf

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 4.2 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. 1925 EventWhite Bluffs Spokesman item of June 19, 1925: a new lookout would be erected that summer on Huckleberry mountain; not reconciled with the register's 1930s dateSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 BuiltDecade only: register says the 20-foot pole L-4 tower was built in the 1930s; a 1925 item said a new lookout would be erected that summerSources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1938 EventLookout received two-way radio equipmentSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1939 First staffedLookout person stationed by mid-May 1939; earliest staffing in the sources read. Lookouts installed that week per a May 20, 1939 itemSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1939 and 1955
  6. 1955 StaffedKnown lookout personnel listed for 1955, 1957, 1958 and 1959 (four people)Sources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. 1964 Replaced by a new structure20-foot treated timber tower with R-6 cab replaced the pole towerSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. 1976 StaffedSeasonal technician worked the lookout July 6 to late August 1976; taken down early for lack of fire weatherSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  9. 1979 RemovedLookout removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1979 and 2012
  11. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: December 16, 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.

Huckleberry Mountain, in Pend Oreille County, carried a fire lookout on the Colville National Forest.1,2 A 1925 item from the White Bluffs Spokesman, quoted by Forest Lookouts, said a new lookout would be erected there that summer.3 The register dates the first pole tower to the 1930s, so the two accounts do not line up cleanly.3,1 In 1938 the lookout was issued two-way radio gear, and in May 1939 a newspaper item reported that lookouts were set up on the mountain that week.3,4

The first structure was a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab. In 1964 a 20-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 cab replaced it.1,2,4

Firelookout.com lists four known lookout staff between 1955 and 1959.2 A 1976 visit report describes a seasonal technician who worked the lookout that summer and came down early because fire weather was scarce.1 WillhiteWeb says an earlier seasonal worker and his family found the post hard to live at.4

The lookout was taken away in 1979.1,2,3,4

WillhiteWeb's photo captions mention footings and stairs, but the page does not say when those photos were taken.4 The same page says the road is in fairly good shape nearly to the top, that a high-clearance SUV should have little trouble reaching the summit, and that the final few hundred feet are partly rocky.4 We found no source that says whether the summit is open to visitors today, so check with the Colville National Forest before going.2,4

  1. Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Site (Colville NF), Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/huckleberry-mountain-lookout-site-colville-nf/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Huckleberry Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/huckleberrycnf.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Huckleberry Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Washington, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/huckleberry-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/huckleberry_mountain/lookout_188.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Site (Colville NF)
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Site (Colville NF)
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1979
1979 (1979)Photo: 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, 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.