FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Yakima County, Washington

Little Bald Lookout Site

Also known as Little Bald Mountain

Wenatchee NF lookout on Little Bald Mountain, Yakima Co.: a 1936 timber tower with L-4 cab, burned in 1980. Concrete footings remain; the summit is reachable by road.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned to the ground in 1980; concrete footings remain and are used as guy-line anchors

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. Drive to the summit (last two miles rough rock, per WillhiteWeb); WTA describes a trail to the summit open to hikers, cyclists, equestrians and motorcycles

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
WTA describes a trail that continues 4.5 miles and 1,506 feet of gain to the summit

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1936
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,108 ft (1,862 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Wenatchee National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Yakima County, Washington
Coordinates
46.90271, −121.16709
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-little-bald

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 its recorded height.

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. 1936 BuiltFFLOS, firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb all give 1936; WillhiteWeb reads 1934 panoramas as possibly showing an earlier structureSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1943 StaffedOne of the female lookouts in summer 1943 was a grade school teacher (WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1943 and 1958
  4. 1958 StaffedTom Bigley filled in late in summer 1958 for the regular lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  5. 1970 StaffedBarbara Jones manned the lookout in the early 1970sSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. 1971 EventUSGS-attributed description of a Forest Service survey disk stamped 1938 in the northeast concrete footing (as posted on the weebly page)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1980 BurnedCab burned to the ground during the lookout's day off; WillhiteWeb's Tom Bigley suspects a propane stoveSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1980 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 11, 2012 as US 1369, WA 269Source: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Little Bald Mountain rises to 6,108 feet (1,862 m) in Yakima County, in the Wenatchee National Forest, and a Forest Service lookout once stood on its summit.1 The register dates the tower to 1936: a 20-foot treated timber tower topped with an L-4 cab.1,2,3 WillhiteWeb reads 1934 panoramic photos as showing a man on the roof of an earlier structure, so the site may have had a lookout before 1936.3

Some of the people who worked there are on record. WillhiteWeb reports that during the summer of 1943 one of the women on the lookout was a grade-school teacher.3 In late summer 1958, Tom Bigley filled in for the regular lookout, and he later wrote about the job online.3 In the early 1970s, Barbara Jones was the lookout.3

The lookout ended in fire.1 The cab was lost to fire in 1980, while the lookout was on a day off.1,2 Tom Bigley suspects a propane stove started it.3 Plans called for a replacement tower, but the Forest Service ended up staffing Cleman Lookout instead.1

Today the sources describe concrete footings rather than a tower.3,4 WillhiteWeb's photo captions say the old footings are now used as guy-line anchors.3 A Forest Service survey disk dated 1938 was set in a northeast concrete footing, according to a 1971 description attributed to the U.S. Geological Survey and posted on one lookout-history site.4 Cars can still reach the summit, and the final two miles are rough rock.3 The Washington Trails Association describes a hike to the summit and notes that motorcyclists, bicyclists and horseback riders may use the trail too. It also says the former lookout burned down in 1980.5

  1. Little Bald Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/little-bald-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Little Bald Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/littlebald.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Little Bald Mountain Lookout Site - Naches Ranger District, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/little_bald_mountain/lookout_site_087.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Little Bald Mountain, FOREST LOOKOUTS, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/little-bald-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Little Bald Mountain, Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/little-bald-mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Little Bald 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, 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, height, 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.