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Fire lookout · Whatcom County, Washington

Park Butte Lookout

A 1932 Forest Service L-4 cabin above timberline on Mount Baker, unstaffed since 1961 and maintained by the Skagit Alpine Club, reached by a 3.5-mile trail from Park Butte Trailhead.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service lists the site open 24 hours a day, first come first served; a recreation pass is required at the trailhead May 1 to Oct 31; no fee for the site. Inside Mount Baker Wilderness, with wilderness rules.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Trail 603 from the Park Butte Trailhead; the nomination describes a 3.5-mile Forest Service trail to the lookout.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of undated (Forest Service and firelookout.com))

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 live-in cabin, 14 x 14 ft, with catwalkThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,369 ft (1,637 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (Mt. Baker Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Whatcom County, Washington
Coordinates
48.71595, −121.85597
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-park-butte

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 4.3 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. 1932 BuiltBuilt in the fall of 1932 by a small Forest Service crew (C.A. Larsen, William Thompson, a hired carpenter); packer Roy Evans brought in the materials. Firelookout.com gives 1933 (see corrections).Sources: npgallery.nps.gov, nhlr.org, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1933 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  3. No record between 1933 and 1961
  4. 1961 Last staffedLast regular fire-detection use; firelookout.com says last manned in the 1960sSources: npgallery.nps.gov, nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1962 EventSkagit Alpine Club took over the lookout under a special use permit with the Forest Service and has maintained it for recreation sinceSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  6. 1970 EventIn the 1970s, when Mount Baker threatened to erupt, the restored lookout served as an observatory for volcano monitors (NHLR; the Skagit Alpine Club says a University of California camera was installed in the mid-1970s)Sources: nhlr.org, skagitalpineclub.com
  7. No record between 1970 and 2003
  8. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on December 1, 2003Source: nhlr.org
  9. 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.

Park Butte Lookout stands on a ridge above timberline, on Mount Baker's south side, in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.1

The Forest Service built it in the fall of 1932 to a standard L-4 plan. The small crew included C.A. Larsen and William Thompson, both of whom had worked as fire lookouts, plus a hired carpenter.2 Packer Roy Evans brought the pre-cut materials in on pack horses, in about 20 trips.2 The builders' names are stamped into the concrete foundation pads.2

Sources disagree on the year. Firelookout.com says 1933, but the register and the nomination both say 1932, and the 1932 date appears in the concrete itself.3,1,2

The lookout was used for fire detection until 1961.2 The Skagit Alpine Club's history says staff also worked as plane spotters during the Second World War.4 In the 1970s, when Mount Baker looked likely to erupt, the restored lookout became an observatory for volcano monitors.1

In 1962 the Skagit Alpine Club took over the cabin under a special use permit with the Forest Service, and the club has maintained it for recreation since.2 The register also notes its National Register of Historic Places listing.1

Today the Forest Service lists the site as open 24 hours a day, reached from the Park Butte Trailhead and Trail 603.5 The nomination describes a 3.5-mile trail that crosses Sulphur Creek and glacial meltwater.2 Use is first come, first served.5 A recreation pass is required at the trailhead from May 1 through October 31, and the Forest Service says no fee applies to the site itself.5 The lookout sits inside the Mount Baker Wilderness, where motorized and mechanized equipment is not allowed and campfires are prohibited.5 The register lists it as available for rental.1 Check Forest Service alerts before you go.

  1. Park Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/park-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Park Butte Lookout, National Register of Historic Places nomination form, National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/87001189.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Park Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/parkbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Park Butte Lookout, Skagit Alpine Club, https://www.skagitalpineclub.com/lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Park Butte Lookout, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mbs/recreation/park-butte-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Park Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Park Butte in 1933
Park Butte in 1933 (1933)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Park Butte in 2006
Park Butte in 2006 (2006)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Park Butte Lookout
Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributors · Public domain · source
Photo of Park Butte 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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, staffing, 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: what it is built of, register numbers, access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.