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Fire lookout · Lewis County, Washington

Lost Lake Lookout Site

Also known as Lost Lake/Coal Creek Mtn.

L-4 cab on the Coal Creek Mountain high point in Gifford Pinchot NF, used from 1934 and gone by the 1960s; reached on foot through the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab and earlier structure were gone by the 1960s; sources read describe no remains on the summit

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 through the Goat Rocks Wilderness; the Bluff Lake road washed out in 2015

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Coal Creek Trail, 6.5 miles one way with 3,600 feet of gain; a Packwood Lake route is a weekend trip

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on the summit, which replaced an earlier tent cabinThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,359 ft (1,938 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lewis County, Washington
Coordinates
46.61197, −121.50687
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-lost-lake

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 3.7 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. 1922 EventFirst used as an observation point with a tent cabinSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1931 StaffedRaymond Campbell on duty when lightning struck the cabinSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab replaced the tent cabinSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1936 EventLookout welcomed 62 visitors that season, per a 1936 account quoted on the Forest Lookouts siteSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1944 StaffedMartha Hardy was the lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1944 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: June 24, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  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.

Lost Lake Lookout stood on the high point of Coal Creek Mountain, a long ridge just inside the Goat Rocks Wilderness in Lewis County, Washington.1,2

The site was first used as an observation point around 1922, with a tent cabin.2,1 An L-4 cab replaced the tent in 1934.2,1

In August 1931 lightning struck the cabin while Raymond Campbell was on duty.3 According to a Centralia Daily Chronicle report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts site, he was stunned but suffered no injury.3 Martha Hardy was the lookout in 1944.1 WillhiteWeb says she later wrote a best-selling book about her earlier lookout work at Tatoosh.1 A 1936 account quoted on the same site says the lookout welcomed 62 visitors that season.3

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the cab was removed in the 1960s, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed then.2,4 WillhiteWeb says both structures, the L-4 cab and an earlier one just below the summit, had been destroyed by the 1960s.1

Topo maps label the high point Lost Lake Benchmark, and no source we read describes what remains of the lookout there.1

The summit is reached on foot.1 The Coal Creek route is 6.5 miles one way, with 3,600 feet of gain.1 WillhiteWeb describes the Packwood Lake route as a weekend trip, with a first-night campsite on the shores of the lakes.1 WillhiteWeb reports that a 2015 washout on Purcell Creek took out the road, so hikers should plan to hike from the washout point.1

  1. Lost Lake Lookout - Bluff Lake Trail, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/hiking/bluff_lake_trail_393.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Lost Lake Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/lost-lake-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Lost Lake, Forest Lookouts (Washington), washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/lost-lake.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lost Lake Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/lostlake.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lost Lake 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, 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.