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Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

Roundtop Mountain Lookout Site

D-6 cupola cabin built 1927 on Roundtop Mountain, Pend Oreille County, WA; removed or destroyed in 1956 (sources differ); footings noted in photos; 3.2-mile hike.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin removed or destroyed in 1956 (sources differ). Photo captions on the Willhite page point to footings and the cupola site; the page does not date them.

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. Hike from an unsigned trailhead a short way down the east side of Pass Creek Pass, reached by Forest Service Road 22 from Lake Sullivan; the route starts at the edge of the Salmo-Priest Wilderness

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 3.2 miles round trip with about 1,066 feet of gain, starting where the Shedroof Divide Trail begins. The cabin is gone, so there is nothing to climb.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cabin (built 1927)The design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1927
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,466 ft (1,971 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.81033, −117.12994
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-roundtop-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 4.3 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. 1927 BuiltD-6 cupola cabin built on the mountainSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1927 EventFrank Algren survived a direct lightning strike while sitting in the brand-new cabin during its first yearSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1927 and 1956
  4. 1956 RemovedFFLOS and Willhite say removed (Willhite: removed or destroyed); FireLookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1964 EventUSGS party placed a benchmark on one of the old footings, a concrete post about 1 by 2 feetSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1964 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 17, 2012 as US 1522, WA 422; nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

Roundtop Mountain rises in Pend Oreille County, Washington, inside the Kaniksu and Colville National Forests.1,2 In 1927 a D-6 cupola cabin went up on the mountain.1,2,3

The Willhite page tells of Frank Algren, who lived through a direct lightning strike while sitting inside the new cabin during its first year.3 The same page says he became a legend around the Selkirk country, known for his eccentric ways.3

Sources disagree on how the cabin ended. The Forest Fire Lookout Association register says it was removed in 1956, FireLookout.com says it was destroyed that year, and the Willhite page says it was removed or destroyed.1,2,3 In 1964 a USGS party marked one of the old footings with a benchmark; the footing was a concrete post about one foot by two feet that served as the base of an old lookout cabin.3

Visiting today means a hike.3 The route runs from Lake Sullivan along Forest Service Road 22 to Pass Creek Pass, and the unsigned trailhead lies a short way down the east side of the pass.3 The round trip is about 3.2 miles with roughly 1,066 feet of climbing.3 The first stretch crosses a burn, then forest the fire missed, and the last climb crosses open grass.3 The hike begins where the Shedroof Divide Trail starts, at the edge of the Salmo-Priest Wilderness.3

The cabin itself is gone.1,2,3 Captions on the Willhite page's photos point to footings and the cupola site, but the page does not say when those photos were taken.3

  1. Roundtop Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (Forest Fire Lookout Association), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/roundtop-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Roundtop Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/roundtop209.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Roundtop Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/roundtop_mountain_lookout/ace_high_cabin_211.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Roundtop Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. 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, 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.