FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Johnson Mountain Lookout Site

L-4 cab built on Johnson Mountain in 1938, abandoned 1959, now gone; sources give no staffing or fire record and one undated photo hints at footings.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab listed as gone by the Former Fire Lookout Sites and firelookout.com; an undated WillhiteWeb.com photo caption suggests footings may remain.

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. Reached on foot by a long hike inside the Glacier Peak Wilderness; no source gives a formal access rule for the site.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 9.5 miles one way from the North Fork Sauk River trailhead, gaining roughly 5,700 feet. WillhiteWeb.com describes following Pilot Ridge Trail to its southwest ridge, then a half-mile climb up the former lookout trail.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,721 ft (2,049 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
47.99476, −121.17162
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-johnson-mountain

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 3.9 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. 1938 BuiltAn L-4 cab was constructed on the site.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1938 and 1959
  3. 1959 AbandonedAbandoned, as all three sources state.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1959 and 2020
  5. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register as US 1964, WA 463, on April 3, 2020.Source: firetower.org
  6. 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.

The lookout site on Johnson Mountain sits at 6,721 feet (2,049 m) in Snohomish County, Washington.1,2 WillhiteWeb.com says it lies farthest south of any mountain in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.3

An L-4 cab went up on the site in 1938.1,2,3

The site was given up in 1959.1,2,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com both list the cab as gone.1,2 The register numbers the site US 1964, WA 463, and gives April 3, 2020, as its registration date.1

A photo on WillhiteWeb.com carries a caption that names footings at the site, which suggests some may remain.3 The caption is undated.3 Neither of the other two sources mentions footings; both say the cab is gone.1,2

Visitors reach the mountain on foot.3 WillhiteWeb.com calls the North Fork Sauk River trailhead the likely best start, and a gravel road leads there that ordinary vehicles can use.3 The one-way hike covers about 9.5 miles and gains roughly 5,700 feet; people often pair it with the North Fork Sauk Loop, a backpacking trip that lasts more than one day.3

  1. Johnson Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/johnson-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Johnson Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/johnsonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Johnson Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/johnson_mountain_lookout/site_070.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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.