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Fire lookout · Yakima County, Washington

Lakeview Mountain Lookout Site

Lakeview Mountain, WA: L-4 cab built 1935 and abandoned 1945; it has since collapsed, debris is reported, and the south side is on Yakama Reservation land where access needs permission.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. South side lies within the Yakama Reservation; north half is in Goat Rocks Wilderness. The sources read describe no public route to the site; the reservation is listed as administrator.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Cab abandoned in 1945 and has collapsed; one history page says a significant amount of debris remains

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure 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
Ruins
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab built in 1935; the sources read describe no tower under itThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,660 ft (2,030 m)
Agency
Yakima Indian Reservation (Yakama Nation)
Land
Tribal land
Location
Yakima County, Washington
Coordinates
46.38788, −121.40486
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-lakeview-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 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. 1935 BuiltL-4 cab builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1945 AbandonedCab abandoned about ten years after it was builtSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1945 and 2012
  4. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 20, 2012 as US 848, WA 49Source: firetower.org
  5. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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.

Lakeview Mountain, in Yakima County, Washington, had an L-4 cab built in 1935.1,2

The cab was abandoned in 1945, ten years after it was built.3,1 The pages we read do not describe who staffed it or any fires it saw.

Left standing alone for years, the cab decayed and eventually collapsed.3 Other pages agree that it has collapsed.1,2,4

Today the site is ruins.4 One history page says a significant amount of debris remains.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites record lists the Yakima Indian Reservation as both location and administrator.1

Wilderness status covers the north half of the mountain, while the south side is Yakama Nation land.3 Treat the site as permission-only. The pages we read describe no public route to it, so ask the tribe before you go.3,1

  1. Lakeview Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/lakeview-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lakeview Mountain Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/lakeview.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lakeview Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/lakeview_mountain_lookout/walupt_lake_037.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lakeview Mountain, Forest Lookouts, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/lakeview-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lakeview Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. 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, 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.