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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Little Baldy Peak Lookout Site

L-4 cab built 1933 on Little Baldy Peak, Gifford Pinchot NF, Skamania County, WA; gone, removal date not found; drive-up to a short walk.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and firelookout.com say the cab is gone; Willhite has a photo captioned 'Footings of the cab'.

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. Willhite: forest road from Willard, 'Access: Good for any vehicle'; no closure appears in the sources read

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Park just below the summit at the switchback; the site is a short walk on an overgrown trail to the south (Willhite)

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
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,924 ft (891 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
45.80286, −121.62323
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-little-baldy-peak

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 4.0 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. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab on the south end of the ridgeSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1936 EventPanoramic images taken from the cab roof on August 16, 1936 show a road to the siteSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1938 StaffedOsmar Ladiges named as the lookout in 1938Source: willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1938 and 1957
  5. 1957 EventWillhite says the cab was likely no longer used by 1957, when the DNR built Nester Peak Lookout nearbySource: willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1957 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 24, 2012 as US 1326, WA 226; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  8. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Baldy Peak lies in Skamania County, Washington, within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, roughly nine miles northwest of White Salmon.1,2 The lookout there was an L-4 cab set on the south end of the ridge in 1933.1,2,3

A road reached the site by August 1936, according to panoramic photographs that Willhite describes as taken from the cab's roof that month.3 Osmar Ladiges is recorded as the lookout in 1938.3 Willhite thinks the cab was probably out of use by 1957, when the DNR built Nester Peak Lookout nearby.3

The sources do not say when the cab was taken down. The register and firelookout.com both list it as gone.1,2 Willhite's page includes a photo labelled with the cab's footings, which is the only physical remnant the sources mention.3

Today the route starts at Willard, runs east on Willard Road, and then climbs a forest road.3 Willhite says to park just below the summit at a switchback and then walk a short, overgrown trail south to the site, and lists the access as good for any vehicle.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's regional list gives the site type as ground, with the lookout gone.4 No source describes what else, if anything, stands there now.3,4

  1. Little Baldy Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/little-baldy-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Little Baldy Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/littlebaldypeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Little Baldy Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/little_baldy_peak_lookout/willard_239.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Washington Lookouts (by Region), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/wa-rg/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Little Baldy Peak Lookout 1943
Little Baldy Peak Lookout 1943 (1943)Photo: Rex Kamstra collection - George Griffith photo, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Little Baldy Peak Lookout 1944
Little Baldy Peak Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via 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. 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
  5. 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.