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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Prouty Peak Lookout Site

Pend Oreille County, WA tower built 1930 (40-ft L-4); taken down in 1935 per three sources, though firelookout.com says abandoned in the 1940s; no remains described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and firelookout.com say it is gone; no source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit

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
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab; a tent cabin and a patrol tower stood half a mile northeastThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1930
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
6,263 ft (1,909 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Colville National Forest, per the register)
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.89412, −117.11784
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-prouty-peak

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 its recorded height.

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. 1930 Built40-foot pole tower with L-4 cab on the peak; tent cabin and patrol tower half a mile northeast (register, firelookout.com, Willhite)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1933 EventJimmie Monroe struck by lightning at the site, per Willhite; the source does not describe a fire or a staffing roleSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1935 RemovedRegister says destroyed in 1935; Willhite and the Forest Lookouts page say the legs were sawn off and the tower pushed over the cliff after the fire seasonSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 AbandonedFirelookout.com says 'Abandoned 1940s'; the year 1940 stands in for the decade only and conflicts with the 1935 accountSource: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1940 and 2020
  6. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 17, 2020 as US 2030, WA 501; nominated by Tammy McLeodSource: firetower.org
  7. 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.

Prouty Peak sits at 6,263 feet in the Colville National Forest, in Pend Oreille County, Washington, about 12 miles east-northeast of Metaline Falls.1,2 A Forest Lookouts page gives the forest as the Kaniksu National Forest instead.3

In 1930 a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab was built on the peak.1,2,4 A tent cabin and a patrol tower stood half a mile northeast.1,2,4

Willhite reports that Jimmie Monroe was struck by lightning at the site in 1933.4

Sources disagree on how the lookout ended. The register gives 1935 as the year it was destroyed.1 Willhite and the Forest Lookouts page both say that after the 1935 fire season, the legs were sawed off and the tower was shoved over a cliff.4,3 Firelookout.com instead dates its abandonment to the 1940s and lists the lookout as gone.2

The register added the site on April 17, 2020.1 None of the sources used for this story describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, so the story does not describe any remains or view.

  1. Prouty Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/prouty-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Prouty Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/proutypeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Prouty Peak - Forest Lookouts, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/prouty-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Prouty Peak Lookout Site & Patrol Point on Green Mountain, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/prouty_peak_lookout/green_mountain_209.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.