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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Pyramid Mountain Lookout Site

Wenatchee NF ground site, Chelan County WA: 1917 cupola cabin, 1930 L-4 cab, cab removed or destroyed in 1954 (sources differ). Listed as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The L-4 cab was removed or destroyed in 1954 (sources differ). No source we read describes the site today.

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
Ground-level cabFirst lookout a cupola cabin (1917); replaced in 1930 by a gabled L-4 cabThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1917
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,245 ft (2,513 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Wenatchee National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.07961, −120.56788
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-pyramid-mountain

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 4.5 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. 1917 BuiltCupola cabin, the first lookout on the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1930 Replaced by a new structureGabled L-4 cab replaced the cupola cabin. A Wenatchee item of August 1930 says the material was to be sent to the peak by pack horse, about five tons in all.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 StaffedDavid Hale named in July 1937 as the Forest Service worker at Pyramid Peak that summer; a September 1937 newspaper item about a horseback trip to the station calls him the lookout manSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1937 and 1954
  5. 1954 RemovedRegister says the cab was removed in 1954; firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year; the Washington Lookouts page says removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1954 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered October 12, 2011, nominated by Austin PostSource: firetower.org
  8. 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.

The Pyramid Mountain lookout stood on a peak in the Wenatchee National Forest, in Chelan County, Washington, at about 8,245 feet, or 2,513 meters.1 Firelookout.com places it roughly 31 miles northwest of Chelan.2

The first lookout on the summit was a cupola cabin, built in 1917.1,2 In 1930 a gabled L-4 cab took its place.1,2 An August 1930 Wenatchee newspaper item, quoted on the Washington Lookouts page, said the new station would be placed at the peak's highest point, and that roughly five tons of material would reach the summit by pack horse.3

One lookout worker appears in the sources. A July 1937 item said David Hale would work at Pyramid Peak for the Forest Service that summer. A September 1937 item about a horseback trip to the station called him the lookout man.3

The sources disagree about how the cab ended. The register says it was removed in 1954, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.1,2 The Washington Lookouts page simply marks the site as removed.3 We could not settle which account is right.

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list records the site as a ground site that is now gone.4 None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, or whether the site is open to visitors. Because it lies in a national forest, anyone interested should check with the Wenatchee National Forest before going up.1

  1. Pyramid Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/pyramid-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pyramid Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/pyramid.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pyramid Mountain, Washington Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/pyramid-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Lookouts in Washington, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pyramid Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1936
1936 (1936)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, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.