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Fire lookout · King County, Washington

Little Mountain Lookout Site (King County)

Also known as Little Mountain

100-foot wooden lookout built 1935 in Seattle's Cedar River watershed, King County, WA; gone after 1969, though sources disagree on destroyed versus removed; permission needed.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. Willhite: permission or a guide needed from City of Seattle Watershed

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1969 per firelookout.com and Willhite; the register says removed in 1969; a 1975 USGS map caption on the Willhite page shows a lookout on Little Mountain.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Willhite lists 0.4 miles and 220 feet of elevation gain; permission or a guide is required.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower7x7 wooden cab with catwalk on a 100-foot wooden tower with a ground house (the register calls the cab an L-6 wooden cab)The design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
2,972 ft (906 m)
Agency
City of Seattle Water Dept
Land
Unknown
Location
King County, Washington
Coordinates
47.37155, −121.67342
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-little-mountain-king-county

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 3.7 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 BuiltMaterials sent to the summit by logging skyline cable so no road was needed; 100-foot wooden tower with a 7x7 cabSource: willhiteweb.com
  2. 1942 EventSite considered for an Aircraft Warning Service post; tower judged too high for continuous winter useSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1942 and 1969
  4. 1969 DestroyedDestroyed, per firelookout.com and WillhiteSources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1969 RemovedRegister says the cab and ground house were removedSource: firetower.org
  6. 1975 EventUSGS map caption on the Willhite page shows a lookout on Little Mountain; this conflicts with a 1969 endSource: willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1975 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: January 6, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Little Mountain lies in the heart of the Cedar River watershed in King County, Washington.1,2 The register says the City of Seattle Water Dept administers the site.2

The lookout went up in 1935, and its builders avoided cutting a road by sending materials to the summit on a logging skyline cable.1 A July 1935 article, quoted on Willhite's page, describes how a Seattle forester and a lumber company superintendent hit upon the idea of using one of the logging company's idle machines.1 The tower was a 100-foot wooden structure with a 7x7 wooden cab and catwalk, and a ground house stood at its base.1,3 The register describes the cab as an L-6 model instead.2

In 1942 the site was considered for an Aircraft Warning Service post, but the tower was judged too high for continuous use during the winter.1

The sources disagree on how the lookout ended. Firelookout.com and Willhite both say it was destroyed in 1969.3,1 The register says the cab and ground house were removed that year.2 Willhite's own photo captions include a 1975 USGS map that shows a lookout on Little Mountain, which conflicts with a 1969 end.1

Photo captions on Willhite's page describe a ground house foundation, a metal tripod, and phone parts and a post still standing at the site.1 The view looking up the watershed is now overgrown, and the last section of the access road is growing over.1

Willhite lists a distance of 0.4 miles and a gain of 220 feet, and says access needs permission or a guide from the City of Seattle Watershed.1 Anyone who wants to visit should arrange permission or a guide first.1

  1. Little Mountain Lookout Site - Cedar River Watershed, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/little_mountain_lookout/cedar_river_watershed_213.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Little Mountain Lookout Site (King County), Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/little-mountain-lookout-site-king-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Little Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/littlemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Little Mountain Lookout Site (King County)
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Ralph Naess, naturalist with Seattle Public Utilities 7/21/1999
Ralph Naess, naturalist with Seattle Public Utilities 7/21/1999 (1999)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
7/21/1999
7/21/1999 (1999)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, register numbers, agency, 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. 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

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