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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Mount Saint Helens Lookout Site

Summit lookout on Mount St. Helens: 1916 house, cupola built 1918-1921, staffed into the 1920s, abandoned about 1929, all remains removed by the May 1980 eruption.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. All remains removed by the May 1980 eruption; by 1980 the register says only the foundation was left

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabWooden house about 12 by 12 feet with a cupola (1916 newspaper plan); cupola later described as a D-6 typeThe design: D-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1916
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,677 ft (2,950 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Columbia National Forest in 1916); site now in Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.20015, −122.18937
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-mount-saint-helens

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 3.8 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. 1916 BuiltLookout erected on the summit per the July 9, 1916 newspaper report, which describes angle-iron construction; the July 20, 1916 report gives the planned wooden 12-foot houseSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1916 First staffedEdward Robinson, patrolman at Spirit Lake, likely first staffed the site (WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1918 AlteredCupola construction began; work ran until 1921Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1919 EventTemporary employee John Walker died after a rockslide while repairing the telephone line to the lookoutSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1921 BuiltCupola work finished; HistoryLink gives 1918-1921 as the three-year build spanSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, historylink.org
  6. 1922 StaffedGeorge Schnitzler (WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
  7. 1924 FireGlen H. Meissner reported 16 fires in one day; the newspaper and WillhiteWeb describe the Portland building differentlySources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. 1924 StaffedGlen H. MeissnerSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  9. 1926 StaffedKenneth MacdonaldSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  10. 1927 EventFamily account (unverified): the writer's father is placed on the Spirit Lake district in 1927 and helped remove salvageable equipment during a summer assignment; the removal year is not statedSource: firetower.org
  11. 1929 AbandonedAbandoned about 1929; HistoryLink says the summit lookout was in use to 1929Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  12. No record between 1929 and 1980
  13. 1980 DestroyedMay 1980 eruption permanently removed all remainsSource: firetower.org
  14. No record between 1980 and 2012
  15. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 17, 2012 as US 1338, WA 238Source: firetower.org
  16. 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.

The Forest Service put a lookout house on the summit of Mount St. Helens in 1916.1,2 The last three miles to the top meant hauling the building sections up snow and ice on steel cable, with rocks balancing the load.2 That summer a newspaper said at least one lookout had gone up, but warned that the station would see little use if the rains kept up.1 The planned house was described as a timber building, twelve feet square, with a six-foot-square cupola.1

The cupola took longer. Work on it started in 1918 and continued until 1921, held up by weather that was hard to predict on the summit, according to the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register.3 HistoryLink says the D-6 cupola took three years of effort, from 1918 to 1921.4

A July 1922 newspaper said a Forest Service man lived in the house from July into early fall, scanning the landscape for fires on clear days.1 WillhiteWeb says Edward Robinson, a patrolman out of Spirit Lake, most likely staffed the site first, in 1916.2 It names George Schnitzler in 1922, Glen H. Meissner in 1924 and Kenneth Macdonald in 1926.1,2

In 1924 Meissner reported 16 fires in one day.1,2 The newspaper links one of those fires to the stock show buildings in Portland, while WillhiteWeb calls it a single building there.1,2 In 1919 a temporary worker named John Walker was caught in a rock slide while mending the telephone line to the lookout.1,2 His injuries were fatal before he could be treated.1,2

Around 1929 the lookout fell out of use.3,5,2 HistoryLink says summit stations like this one did not work out, because their height left them open to bad weather that blocked the views.4

A family account on the register page, which we could not corroborate, places a Forest Service worker on the Spirit Lake district in 1927 and says he helped take usable equipment down from the lookout during a summer assignment.3 WillhiteWeb reports that the Osborne fire finder broke loose from a backpack on the way down and was never found again.2 A contributor to the register also recalled having lunch on what was left of the wooden house in the summer of 1950.3

The May 1980 eruption wiped out whatever remained.3 By 1980, the register says, only the foundation was left; WillhiteWeb adds a few remnants.3,2

We found no source that describes the site today, or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Mount Saint Helens - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Washington Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/mount-saint-helens.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount St. Helens Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/mount_st_helens/wa_007.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mount Saint Helens Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/mount-saint-helens-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Fire Lookouts in Washington, HistoryLink.org, https://www.historylink.org/File/23254 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Mt. St. Helens Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/mtsthelens.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Saint Helens 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, 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.