Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington
Moses Mountain Lookout
Colville reservation lookout: 1914 crow's nest, 1938 123 ft Aermotor (tallest in PNW), abandoned mid-1980s; road driveable in 2018, tribal permit needed; last visit 2018.
- Standing
- Tribal land: permission required
- Verified
Tribal land: permission required
This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Colville Indian Reservation land. Non-tribal visitors need a recreation permit, which TrailChick gives as $80 a year.
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- Drive from Omak: State Route 155 east, BIA-56 for 5.3 miles, then BIA-61 for 4 miles to the summit. TrailChick recommends a high-clearance AWD vehicle.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower123 ft Aermotor steel tower (1938)The design: Aermotor
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1930
- Height
- 123 ft (37.5 m)
- Elevation
- 6,777 ft (2,066 m)
- Agency
- Colville Indian Reservation
- Land
- Tribal land
- Location
- Okanogan County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 48.37173, −119.06124
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-moses-mountain
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 4.2 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
- 1914 EventEstablished as a lookout with a crow's nest tree platform and cabinSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
- 1923 Replaced by a new structureA 30 ft pole tower with a crude cab replaced the treeSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- 1930 Built35 ft steel tower constructedSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- 1938 BuiltCurrent 123 ft Aermotor steel tower built; described as the tallest lookout tower in the Pacific NorthwestSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
- 1941 MovedEvidence suggests the 1930 tower was moved to Grizzly Mountain and built there in 1941. The move is inferred, not documentedSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- No record between 1941 and 1985
- 1985 AbandonedAbandoned in the mid-1980sSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
- No record between 1985 and 2022
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered April 13, 2022Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Moses Mountain Lookout stands on the Colville Indian Reservation, about 21 miles east of Omak in Okanogan County.1,2 Its history begins in 1914, when a crow's-nest platform in a tree and a cabin served as the lookout.1,2
In 1923 a 30-foot pole tower with a rough cab took the place of the tree.1,2 A 35-foot steel tower followed in 1930.1,2 The current 123-foot Aermotor steel tower went up in 1938, and the sources describe it as the tallest lookout in the Pacific Northwest.1,2,3 The Aermotor Company, a Chicago firm founded in 1888, made steel towers of this kind.1
The sources read do not name a lookout who worked here or record a fire the site spotted.1,2,3
The lookout was given up in the mid-1980s.1,2 Both NHLR and firelookout.com suggest the 1930 tower was probably moved to Grizzly Mountain, where it was built in 1941.1,2 That move is inferred from evidence rather than documented, so treat it as likely, not confirmed.
The road is driveable.3 From Omak, take State Route 155 east, then BIA-56 for 5.3 miles and BIA-61 for 4 miles to the summit.3 TrailChick recommends a high-clearance, all-wheel-drive vehicle because road conditions can vary.3 Non-tribal visitors must buy a recreation permit, which TrailChick gives as $80 a year.3
TrailChick visited on November 19, 2018, and found the roads in good shape that day.3 The latest visit in the sources read was in 2018, and the TrailChick page was last updated in March 2024, so the tower's current condition is not confirmed here.3
- Moses Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/moses-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Moses Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/moses.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Moses Mountain, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/moses-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: design, height, 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts (opens another site) Gave us: photos 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
- WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site) 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 1555 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Washington lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Moses Mountain Lookout - TrailChick (opens another site)
- Moses Mountain Lookout - Forest Lookouts Page (opens another site)
- Moses Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Moses Mountain on WillhiteWeb.com Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.