FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Mowich Butte Lookout Site

Gifford Pinchot NF summit in Skamania County, WA: a first building before 1934, then an L-4 cab abandoned in the 1960s; gone, and no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The L-4 cab was abandoned in the 1960s; the register and FireLookout.com both say it is gone.

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
The road is blocked. Walk the old road and climb the hillside to the summit, a bushwhack of under half a mile (Willhite).

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabFirst building with living quarters below and a small cupola on the roof (1934 description); an L-4 cab later replaced itThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1937
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,513 ft (1,071 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
45.79976, −122.03083
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-mowich-butte

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 4.2 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

  1. 1934 EventWillhite: a first lookout building stood on the summit, built before 1934; panoramic photos taken July 6, 1934 show the Yacolt Fire burn areaSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 StaffedPete Paladeni, new to the CCC, spent a week on the lookout while the man on duty went home to Spokane for dental care (2002 interview, as printed by Willhite)Source: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1937 BuiltL-4 cab, dated 1937 by the register and FireLookout.com; Willhite says it possibly replaced the first building in 1937Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1946 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey station description uses the Mowich Butte Forest Service lookout house as a reference pointSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1960 AbandonedAbandoned in the 1960s; sources give only the decade, so the year is a placeholderSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  6. 1965 EventA survey team mentions the lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1965 and 2012
  8. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: July 16, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  9. 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.

Mowich Butte is a summit in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Skamania County, Washington.1,2 Willhite says a first lookout building stood on the summit before 1934, with its living space just down the slope.3 He says an L-4 cab later replaced it, possibly in 1937.3 The register and FireLookout.com both state 1937 as the cab's build year, without the hedge Willhite uses.1,2

Panoramic photos were taken on July 6, 1934,4 and Willhite says the views show the summit inside the Yacolt Fire burn area, before any of the snags had been felled.3 In a 2002 interview, Pete Paladeni said his Mowich stint came when he was new to the CCC.3 He spent a week on the lookout while the man on duty, who had a dental problem, wanted to go home to Spokane for treatment.3

A survey team mentioned the lookout in 1965.3 A Coast and Geodetic Survey station description dated 1946 uses the Forest Service lookout house as a reference point.4 The register and FireLookout.com both say the cab was abandoned in the 1960s and is now gone.1,2

None of the sources read describes what remains on the summit today. Willhite's photos are captioned "Lookout site in 2017," "Summit in trees," and "View through trees to Mt. Adams."3 Willhite's route notes start at the blocked road and follow an overgrown old road up the hillside, which he calls a bushwhack with a hiking distance under half a mile.3 The sources do not say whether the site is open to the public.

  1. Mowich Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/mowich-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mowich Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/mowichbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Mowich Butte Lookout Site - Yacolt Burn Area, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/mowich_butte_lookout/yacolt_burn_223.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Mowich Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/mowich-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Mowich Butte Lookout 1944
Mowich Butte Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mowich Butte Lookout 1945
Mowich Butte Lookout 1945 (1945)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mowich Butte Lookout 1962
Mowich Butte Lookout 1962 (1962)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, 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, 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.