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Fire lookout · King County, Washington

Meadow Mountain Lookout Site

King County L-4 cab site 8 miles south of Snoqualmie Pass; cab built 1935, gone by 1972 (sources differ on removed or destroyed); now a hike.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab came down in 1972; the summit site and some anchor lines remain

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 by a steep, rocky road and an abandoned trail; the Mountaineers describe it as a hike

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
High clearance gets closest to the start; the walk runs from 1/2 mile to 2 miles depending on where you park

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on a rock talus outcrop at the most southern point of the summitThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,414 ft (1,650 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
King County, Washington
Coordinates
47.29997, −121.44813
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-meadow-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. 1934 EventPanoramic photographs dated 1934 taken from the summit; they appear to show a lookout campSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 BuiltL-4 cab on the south point of the rock talus outcropSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1958
  4. 1958 EventUSGS placed a monument at the lookout siteSource: willhiteweb.com
  5. 1972 RemovedRegister says removed; Firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1972 and 2010
  7. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 19, 2010 as US 637, WA 14Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Meadow Mountain lies eight miles south of Snoqualmie Pass in King County, on land the U.S. Forest Service administers.1,2 Panoramic photographs dated 1934 were taken from the summit, and the Washington fire lookouts guide at willhiteweb.com says they appear to show a lookout camp.1,3

The L-4 cab followed in 1935.1,3 It sat on a rock talus outcrop at the summit's southern tip, a spot where trees cannot grow.3 In 1958 the U.S. Geological Survey placed a monument at the site.3

The cab stood until 1972.3 The register says it was removed that year, while Firelookout.com says it was destroyed, so the sources agree on the year but not on how the cab left the summit.1,2

Today the site is a hike.4 The Mountaineers describe the lookout site on the south summit as abandoned and rarely visited. Getting there means a steep, rocky road, an overgrown clear-cut and an old trail.4 The willhiteweb guide says high clearance gets you closest to the start, and that the walk runs from half a mile to two miles depending on where you park.3 That guide also records anchor lines still up on the summit and four phone lines running down the mountainside.3 No source we read describes a standing cab there today.1,2,3,4

  1. Meadow Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/meadow-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Meadow Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/meadowmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Meadow Mountain Lookout Site, Washington fire lookouts guide, willhiteweb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/meadow_mountain/snoqualmie_pass_345.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Meadow Mountain (Snoqualmie), The Mountaineers, https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/routes-places/meadow-mountain-snoqualmie (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Meadow Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
View of Mount Ranier
View of Mount RanierPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Long metal rods with eyebolts
Long metal rods with eyeboltsPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (N)
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (N) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (SE)
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (SE) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (SW)
Meadow Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-10-1934 (SW) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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.