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Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Miners Ridge Lookout

A 20-ft timber L-4 tower in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, dated 1938 by the NRHP nomination but 1953 by NHLR; volunteers staff it during fire danger.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service lists the site as open with no fee; trail access only. Active alerts for a Suiattle River Road washout and a fire closure order were listed when checked.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About a 26.5-mile round trip from the Suiattle Trailhead, reached by a 23.5-mile drive on Suiattle River Road (Forest Service). NHLR describes a 12-mile hiking trail; the nomination puts the nearest trailhead 16 miles away.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of undated)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cabin, 14 x 14 ft with catwalk, on a 20-ft timber towerCab: L-4; tower: Region 6 timber towers (CT, TT)
Built of
Wood
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
6,129 ft (1,868 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
48.20692, −121.02885
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-miners-ridge

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1926 EventFirelookout.com: first developed about 1926 with a 10x10 ft shake cabin; the nomination says the site was in use by 1928Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1928 FireForest Service records show a fire report from Miners Ridge; the site was in use as a lookout pointSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  3. 1938 BuiltPresent tower and cabin, replacing an older lookout house; built per the 1936 revised L-4 plan; builders Claude Brazelton and Hugh Ritter, possibly a CCC crew. Firelookout.com also gives 1938 for the replacement tower.Sources: npgallery.nps.gov, firelookout.com
  4. 1951 EventDistrict ranger Warren Pressentin fell through the lookout floor hatch about 20 feet; the rescue helicopter crashed while landing on the ridge north of the lookout. Everyone survived.Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  5. 1952 AlteredStairway relocated so the cabin is entered through the catwalk rather than the interiorSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  6. 1953 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  7. 1953 EventNHLR and firelookout.com date the present tower to 1953; the nomination dates it to 1938 (see corrections)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1953 and 1973
  9. 1973 StaffedTom and Suzanne Brown listed as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  10. No record between 1973 and 1994
  11. 1994 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on January 20, 1994Source: nhlr.org
  12. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Miners Ridge Lookout sits on a grassy knoll inside the Glacier Peak Wilderness, in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.1,2 Lookout use at the site goes back at least to 1928, when Forest Service files log a fire report from the ridge.1

The tower that stands there now is 20 feet tall and carries a 14-by-14-foot cabin built to the Forest Service's L-4 plan, with a catwalk.1 The nomination dates the tower to 1938, when it replaced an older lookout house, and says the cabin followed a plan revised in 1936. It names Claude Brazelton and Hugh Ritter as builders, possibly with a Civilian Conservation Corps crew.1

Sources disagree on the date. The nomination says 1938, while the National Historic Lookout Register gives 1953 for the tower standing today.1,3 Firelookout.com gives both years, 1938 for the replacement and 1953 for the present tower.4

The nomination says the lookout has been staffed during high fire danger since it was first built, and that volunteers now do the job.1 Firelookout.com names Tom and Suzanne Brown as lookout personnel in 1973.4 One visitor comment on the register's page says two National Park Service rangers staff it, but that conflicts with the volunteer accounts and is unverified.3

In 1951, district ranger Warren Pressentin fell through the lookout's floor hatch about 20 feet. A helicopter sent to help him crashed while landing on the ridge nearby. Everyone survived, and the stairway was moved in 1952 so people enter through the catwalk instead.1

The register reports 65 years of activity, so the lookout is still in use.3 The nomination says steady use and relative isolation have kept it maintained and less exposed to vandalism, and the old fuselage from the crash remains near the lookout.1 The register listed it on January 20, 1994.3

Access is by trail, and the sources disagree on how far it is. The Forest Service describes a round trip of about 26.5 miles from the Suiattle Trailhead, reached by a 23.5-mile drive on Suiattle River Road.2 The register describes a 12-mile hiking trail, and the nomination puts the nearest trailhead 16 miles away.3,1 The Forest Service page lists the site as open and says no fee is required, but it also shows active alerts for a Suiattle River Road washout closure and a fire closure order. Check those before you go.2

  1. Miners Ridge Lookout, National Register of Historic Places nomination form, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset?assetID=98a4dd24-1cd0-4eee-903b-83d93b702a6e (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Miners Ridge Lookout, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mbs/recreation/miners-ridge-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Miners Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/miners-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Miners Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/minersridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

January 2018 photo
January 2018 photo (2018)Photo: John Scurlock, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Miners Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Miners Ridge in 2001
Miners Ridge in 2001 (2001)Photo: Mike Hardy, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Miners Ridge Lookout
Photo: JSedivy, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Photo of Miners Ridge Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.com) · 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1953
    • Wikidata: 1938
    • OpenStreetMap: 1953
    • TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts: 1953

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.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: design, staffing, dates, photos, 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: photos, links TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.