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Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Mount Pilchuck Lookout

Also known as Pilchuck Mountain

Restored 1938-43 L-4 cab built around a 1921 cupola lookout on Mount Pilchuck, now a hiker shelter in a Washington state park.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. reached only by trail; within Mount Pilchuck State Park

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
summit trail from Mount Pilchuck State Park trailhead
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 14x14 ft groundhouse built around the floor of an earlier D-6/cupola cabThe designs: L-4, D-6
Built of
Wood
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,217 ft (1,590 m)
Agency
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
48.05792, −121.79775
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-mount-pilchuck

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. 1917 First staffedOsborne Fire Finder mounted on a rock pile at the summit, with spotters sleeping in a nearby tent before any building existedSource: parks.wa.gov
  2. 1918 Builtprefabricated cupola lookout house ordered and shipped up via tramlineSources: willhiteweb.com, parks.wa.gov
  3. 1921 First staffedlookout completed and staffed, first lookout Everett HuffSources: nhlr.org, willhiteweb.com, parks.wa.gov
  4. No record between 1921 and 1938
  5. 1938 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  6. 1938 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab built around the old cupola; state parks history gives 1941/1942 and NHLR gives 1943 for this same rebuild -- a three-way date conflictSources: willhiteweb.com, parks.wa.gov, nhlr.org
  7. No record between 1938 and 1957
  8. 1957 Last staffedNHLR gives 1957 as when staffing ended; state parks history says fire-detection use continued until after 1960 and willhiteweb says 'in the 1960s' it was last staffedSources: nhlr.org, parks.wa.gov, willhiteweb.com
  9. No record between 1957 and 1989
  10. 1989 RestoredEverett Mountaineers-led restoration, ~105 volunteers, ~10,000 hours, with Snohomish County Search and Rescue and an Army Reserve helicopterSources: parks.wa.gov, firelookout.com
  11. 1993 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered on National Historic Lookout Register, October 7, 1993Sources: nhlr.org, parks.wa.gov
  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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Fire spotters were watching from Mount Pilchuck's summit before there was any building to shelter them, using an Osborne Fire Finder mounted on a rock pile and sleeping in a tent nearby.1 In 1918 the U.S. Forest Service ordered a prefabricated cupola-style lookout house from a Portland supply company; crews blasted rock from the summit and built a tramline to haul the roughly four tons of lumber and glass up the mountain's final stretch.2,1 The cupola was assembled on top and the lookout was finished and staffed by 1921, with Everett Huff as the first lookout.3,2

A second, larger building went up around the original cupola in the early 1940s. Sources disagree on the exact year: the Washington State Parks history gives 1941 or 1942, the National Historic Lookout Register says 1943, and firelookout.com and a detailed trip-report site both say 1938.3,2,1,4 All agree the result was the 14-by-14-foot L-4 cab that still stands on the summit today, built around the old cupola floor.2,4 The lookout was staffed through the 1950s; the state parks account says fire detection use ended after 1960, while NHLR gives 1957 as the year staffing stopped.3,1

Washington's Department of Natural Resources transferred the site to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, and by the late 1980s the long-unused lookout needed major repair. In 1988 and 1989, the Everett branch of The Mountaineers led a restoration, with about 105 volunteers logging roughly 10,000 hours of work, assisted by Snohomish County Search and Rescue and an Army Reserve helicopter.1,4 The lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on October 7, 1993.3,1

Today the lookout is part of Mount Pilchuck State Park and sits within a large Natural Forest Area protected since 1990.1 It functions as a hiker shelter and interpretive site rather than an active fire tower, reached only by trail, and continued volunteer upkeep has kept it standing despite heavy foot traffic.3,4 It is not available to rent.

  1. Mount Pilchuck State Park History, Washington State Parks, https://parks.wa.gov/about/news-center/field-guide-blog/mount-pilchuck-state-park-history (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Mount Pilchuck, willhiteweb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/mount_pilchuck/state_park_010.htm (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Mount Pilchuck Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/mount-pilchuck-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Mt. Pilchuck Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/pilchuck.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Pilchuck Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mt. Pilchuck in 1921
Mt. Pilchuck in 1921 (1921)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Mt. Pilchuck in 1979
Mt. Pilchuck in 1979 (1979)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Mt. Pilchuck in 2005
Mt. Pilchuck in 2005 (2005)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Mount Pilchuck Lookout
Photo: Walter Siegmund, via Wikimedia Commons · GFDL · source
Photo of Mount Pilchuck 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: 1938
    • OpenStreetMap: 1938
    • TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts: 1943

    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, register numbers, agency, 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, ownership, 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. The Mountaineers, Everett Branch Gave us: dates, links The Mountaineers, Everett Branch (mountaineers.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the Mountaineers page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: what it is built of, register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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.