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Fire lookout · Kitsap County, Washington

Rainier Lookout Site (now at Islandwood)

Also known as Islandwood, Islandwood Canopy Tower

Steel tower from the Fort Lewis Rainier lookout, sold and removed around 2000, rebuilt by Sahale for IslandWood and dedicated as Canopy Tower in 2009; standing.

Original site: Rainier Lookout Site

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower112-foot all-steel tower with a rebuilt cab, treads and an added ADA-compliant helical stairwell
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1966
Height
118 ft (36.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
IslandWood Environmental Learning Center
Land
Unknown
Location
Kitsap County, Washington
Coordinates
47.60320, −122.52578
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-rainier-lookout-site-at-islandwood

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. 1966 BuiltSahale's page says the tower was erected at Fort Lewis in 1966; the register and firelookout.com give 1968Source: seattlebridgebuilders.com
  2. 1968 Built112-foot all-steel tower replaced the 1942 timber tower at the Rainier site, per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1968 and 1998
  4. 1998 EventDecommissioned and sold for scrap, per Sahale; the dismantled tower spent years in storageSource: seattlebridgebuilders.com
  5. 2000 RemovedSold and removed from the Fort Lewis site, per firelookout.com; the register says sold, then moved to and sold again to IslandWoodSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 2009 RebuiltReconstruction at IslandWood completed February 2009 by Sahale LLC; the register says it was dedicated as Canopy Tower in May 2009Sources: firetower.org, seattlebridgebuilders.com
  7. Date unknown MovedMoved from Rainier to Islandwood.Source: FFLA
  8. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The steel tower now called the Canopy Tower began on the Rainier lookout site in Washington, on the Fort Lewis Military Reservation.1 The first tower there was a 100-foot timber tower that the U.S. Army built in 1942.1 That timber tower was replaced by a steel tower.1 That steel tower is the one that stands today at IslandWood, a learning center on Bainbridge Island.2,3

Sources give different dates for the steel tower.1,2,4 Sahale's page says it was erected at Fort Lewis in 1966.2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register and firelookout.com say a 112-foot steel tower replaced the timber tower in 1968.1,4

The steel tower was sold and taken down around the turn of the century.1,4 Sahale says the tower was retired in 1998 and sold as scrap, then sat in storage for years.2

IslandWood had the dismantled steel rebuilt, with Sahale LLC doing the work.2 Sahale inventoried the old members and built a 3D model from the old plans.2 It also added an ADA-compliant helical stairwell through the middle of the structure, and the work was finished in February 2009.2 The register says the tower was dedicated under its new name, Canopy Tower, in May 2009.1

Today the tower stands in a wooded valley at the IslandWood Environmental Learning Center.2 Sahale gives its height as 118 feet, though the same page also gives 125 feet in another place.2 The Washington lookout list marks it as standing.3 Sahale says thousands of children use it each year, and the sources do not describe visiting rules.2

  1. Rainier Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/rainier-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Islandwood Canopy Tower, Seattle Bridge Builders LLC (Sahale LLC), https://seattlebridgebuilders.com/suspension-bridge-design-and-build/special-projects/islandwood-canopy-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Washington lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Rainier Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/rainiertower.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, agency, dates, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. 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.