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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Point 3670 Lookout Site

Skamania County, WA lookout site: an L-4 cab built in 1934, staffed into 1965 and burned in 1971; a gravel forest road now ends at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab was burned in 1971. No source I read describes remains on the ground at the site today.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Drive-up on Forest Road 31, which Willhite describes as good gravel to the site.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
The road ends at the site, which is not the highest point. A very small road leads on to the true summit.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,434 ft (1,047 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.04050, −121.98697
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-point-3670

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 4.3 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. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab built about a quarter mile north of the summit at the end of the main roadSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1937 EventA benchmark was placed, per WillhiteSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1937 and 1964
  4. 1964 StaffedAnnounced as one of six lookouts to stay manned, mainly for communications coverageSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1965 StaffedAnnounced as the only manned lookout in the Spirit Lake and Lewis River districtsSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1971 BurnedForest Service burned the lookout house as no longer needed; the register says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1971 and 2012
  8. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 16, 2012 as US 1336, WA 236; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  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.

Point 3670 is a lookout site in Skamania County, within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.1 An L-4 cab went up in 1934, about a quarter mile north of the summit, where the main road ends.1,2,3 Photographs from July 4, 1934 show trees recently cut to open the view to the northwest.3,4 A benchmark was placed in 1937.3

In May 1964 air patrols were expected to replace the coverage the lookout system had provided, according to a Longview Daily News report quoted by Forest Lookouts.4 The 37 stations manned in earlier years were to drop to six manned lookouts, and Point 3670 was one of the six, mainly to provide communications coverage.4 In June 1965 the plan narrowed again: Point 3670 would be the only staffed lookout in the Spirit Lake and Lewis River areas, and aircraft would do the other patrolling.4

In 1971 the Forest Service burned the lookout house, which it no longer needed.4,3 The register says the cab was destroyed that year.1,2

The site sits at the end of Forest Road 31. Willhite describes the road as good gravel, though trees block the view from the site.3 His 2020 photographs show the site at the end of the road.3 That year new culverts were being replaced along the whole access road, which Willhite says shows the Forest Service plans to keep it for many years.3 He speculates that the work may point to a timber sale soon.3 None of the sources used for this story describes remains on the ground today.

  1. Point 3670 Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/point-3670-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Point 3670 Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/point3670.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Point 3670 Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/point_3670_lookout/forest_service_027.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Point 3670 - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/point-3670.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Point 3670 Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1971
1971 (1971)Photo: 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, 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.