FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Omak Mountain Lookout

Colville Reservation lookout: an L-4 cab from 1935, a 1968 timber tower, and the present 53-foot steel live-in tower built 1986; staffed in summer, reached by permit.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On Colville Indian Reservation land. Non-tribal visitors need a Colville Tribes Reservation Use Pass: $80 a year or $20 a day, good for two vehicles. The tribal sheet is undated, so check current prices.

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?
Unknown
Trail
Drive from Omak on Highway 155, then Omak Lookout Road. A high-clearance all-wheel-drive vehicle can reach the summit, but the road is very rocky about 2.5 miles from the top. The tower is a working, staffed lookout.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower53-foot all-steel live-in tower, built 1986The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Steel
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
5,747 ft (1,752 m)
Agency
Colville Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.44939, −119.30902
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-omak-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 4.0 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. 1935 BuiltFirst lookout, an L-4 cab, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.Sources: nhlr.org, trailchick.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1943 StaffedA July 1943 Colville newspaper item reported teachers working as fire lookouts that summer, including Rachel Butte of Chewelah Junior High on Omak Mountain.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1952 StaffedDorothy Bissell is listed as a lookout.Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1953 StaffedEleanor Brown is listed as a lookout.Source: firelookout.com
  5. 1960 Condition assessmentInspection report: the 1935 cabin was in poor condition; a new cabin fifteen feet higher was proposed. A television reflector station and Border Patrol building on the site obstructed the view.Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1968 Replaced by a new structureA 20-foot timber tower with an R-6 flat cab replaced the original L-4 cab.Sources: nhlr.org, trailchick.com, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1968 and 1986
  8. 1986 BuiltPresent 53-foot all-steel live-in tower.Sources: nhlr.org, trailchick.com, firelookout.com
  9. No record between 1986 and 2022
  10. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on April 13, 2022.Source: nhlr.org
  11. 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.

Omak Mountain rises on the Colville Indian Reservation in Okanogan County, about ten miles east-northeast of Omak.1,2 The register lists the land as administered by the reservation, so visitors need to follow tribal rules.1,3

The first lookout was an L-4 cab, which the Civilian Conservation Corps built in 1935.1,4,2 A 1960 inspection report describes a wooden cabin on a four-foot concrete foundation wall, credits the CCC with building it in 1935, and calls it in poor condition.5 The same report proposed a new cabin fifteen feet higher, and noted that a television reflector station and a Border Patrol building on the site blocked the view in one direction.5

Firelookout.com says the Washington State Division of Forestry first staffed the lookout, and it names two early lookouts: Dorothy Bissell in 1952 and Eleanor Brown in 1953.2 In July 1943 a Colville newspaper reported that teachers were working as fire lookouts that summer across the Colville National Forest, and it named one of them on Omak Mountain, Rachel Butte of Chewelah Junior High.5

In 1968 a 20-foot timber tower with an R-6 flat cab took the place of the original cab.1,4,2 The present 53-foot all-steel live-in tower went up in 1986.1,4,2 The 1935 and 1986 dates do not conflict. They describe the first cab and the tower standing today.1,4

The register says the tower is still staffed in summer.1 TrailChick, last updated in March 2024, says it is staffed whenever fire danger is high.4 Firelookout.com says it is staffed every summer.2 Summer is the season, but how often someone is up there is unclear, since TrailChick ties staffing to high fire danger.

Access is by permit. The Colville Tribes' Parks and Recreation sheet says visitors need a Reservation Use Pass. It lists an annual pass at $80 or a $20 daily pass, good for two vehicles.3 That sheet is undated, so check current prices before going. TrailChick reports the same $80 annual fee for non-tribal members.4

TrailChick says the road from Omak might be among the rockiest and roughest of any lookout road in the state. A high-clearance all-wheel-drive vehicle can reach the summit, but the road turns very rocky roughly 2.5 miles short of the summit.4

The register listed the lookout on April 13, 2022.1 Today it is a staffed, live-in lookout on tribal land, so treat it as a working site and do not climb it.

  1. Omak Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/omak-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Omak Mountain Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/omak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Purchase Reservation Permits and Passes, Colville Tribes Parks and Recreation, https://www.colvilletribes.com/s/04-Purchase-Reservation-Permits-Passes.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Omak Mountain, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/omak-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Omak Mountain, Forest Lookouts of Washington, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/omak-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Omak Mountain Lookout - 2018
Omak Mountain Lookout - 2018 (2018)Photo: Christine Estrada, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1952
1952 (1952)Photo: Washington Digital Archive, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Omak Mtn. in 1952
Omak Mtn. in 1952 (1952)Photo: the Washington Digital Archives, the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Omak Mtn. in 1954
Omak Mtn. in 1954 (1954)Photo: the Washington Digital Archives, the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Omak Mtn. in 1991
Omak Mtn. in 1991 (1991)Photo: the Washington Digital Archives, the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Omak Mountain 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.

    • NHLR: 1986
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1935
    • TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts: 1986

    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, 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
  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: what it is built of, design, staffing, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: height, 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
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.