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Fire lookout · Yakima County, Washington

Jennies Butte Lookout Site

Yakima County, WA lookout first used in 1920; 55 ft wooden tower (1935), 60 ft steel tower (1942) removed after 1979; Yakama land, permission needed.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Willhite: on Yakama Nation land and access is forbidden without special permission. TrailChick: most of the reservation is closed to non-tribal members

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Steel tower removed after 1979 per Willhite; the register says the site has since been removed; only undated photo captions of footings describe the site

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerFirst used 1920 with a limber pole tower and cabin; 3-legged 55 ft wooden tower with 8x8 ft cab (1935); 60 ft Aermotor steel tower (1942)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1920
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,410 ft (1,954 m)
Agency
Yakima Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Yakima County, Washington
Coordinates
46.39418, −121.31032
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-jennies-butte

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 4.1 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. 1920 BuiltFirst used with a limber pole tower and cabinSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1920 and 1935
  3. 1935 Built3-legged 55 ft wooden tower with an 8x8 ft cabSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1942 Replaced by a new structure60 ft Aermotor steel tower replaced the wooden towerSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 1979
  6. 1979 RemovedSteel tower removed after 1979 (Willhite)Source: willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1979 and 2012
  8. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 20, 2012 as US 1362, WA 262; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  9. 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.

Jennies Butte rises to 6,410 feet in Yakima County, on the Yakama Nation's land about 16 miles northeast of Mount Adams.1,2,3 The register lists the administrator as the Yakima Indian Reservation.1

The site was first used in 1920, when a pole tower and cabin were in place.1,3 In 1935 a three-legged wooden tower, 55 feet tall with an 8-by-8-foot cab, went up.1,3 In 1942 a steel Aermotor tower, 60 feet high, took over.1,3

Willhite says the steel tower came down after 1979.3 The register says the tower has since been removed, and the Forest Lookouts page marks the site as removed.1,4 FireLookout's heading runs the dates as "1942-?", which leaves the end of the steel tower's life open.2

The register lists the site as US 1362, WA 262 and says it was registered on July 20, 2012, nominated by Ray Kresek.1

Willhite's photo captions show footings and a living quarters cabin. The captions for those views carry no dates, and no source we read describes what stands there now.3

Willhite says access needs special permission from the Yakama Nation, and that a 4WD vehicle is needed.3 A trip blog says non-tribal visitors are barred from most of the reservation.5 The same blog names Satus and Signal peaks as the final two lookouts left on Yakama land, which suggests no standing tower remains at Jennies Butte.5

  1. Jennies Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/jennies-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Jennies Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/jenniesbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Jennies Butte Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/jennies_butte_lookout/yakama_nation_036.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Jennies Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/jennies-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Visiting the Yakama Reservation Fire Lookouts, TrailChick, https://trailchick.com/visiting-the-yakama-reservation/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Jennies Butte Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1938
1938 (1938)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, access, 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. 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.