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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Sherwood Mountain Lookout Site

Stevens County lookout on the Spokane Reservation: 83-ft steel tower and L-4 cab dated 1936, abandoned 1950s, tower gone by 1990; FFLOS-registered 2012.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Ask the tribe before visiting.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Steel tower gone by 1990; the only recent description (WillhiteWeb) finds a foundation and metal items, no tower

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
WillhiteWeb: a dirt road from Wellpinit works up to the summit; only one spot would be tough for a standard vehicle

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower83-foot steel Aermotor tower with an L-4 cab for living quartersCab: L-4; tower: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
83 ft (25.3 m)
Elevation
2,942 ft (897 m)
Agency
Spokane Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
47.87374, −117.94630
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-sherwood-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.0 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. 1936 BuiltRegister and Firelookout date the 83-foot tower and L-4 cab to 1936; WillhiteWeb says the 1936 lookout may have been the cab aloneSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1950 AbandonedRegister and Firelookout say the tower and cab were abandoned in the 1950s (decade only)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1950 and 1979
  4. 1979 EventSteel tower still standing in 1979Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1990 EventTower gone by 1990; the sources do not say how or when it came downSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1990 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 17, 2012 as US 1526, WA 426; 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.

Sherwood Mountain sits on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Stevens County, about two miles southeast of Wellpinit.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register lists the reservation as the administrator.2

The register and Firelookout both date the lookout to 1936, when an 83-foot steel Aermotor tower was built with an L-4 cab for living quarters.2,1 WillhiteWeb says the early record is unclear.3 It suggests the 1936 station may have been the L-4 cab alone, while some accounts say the steel tower went up that year and the cab housed the living quarters.3

The register and Firelookout say the tower and cab were abandoned in the 1950s.2,1 WillhiteWeb reports the steel tower still standing in 1979.3 The tower was gone by 1990.2,1,3 Forest Lookouts lists the site as removed.4

The site entered the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register on December 17, 2012, as US 1526, WA 426, with Ray Kresek as nominator.2

The only description of the site today is WillhiteWeb's visit.3 The author found that trees on the site have grown tall enough to block the views.3 The author saw what seemed to be the foundation of an L-4 cab and metal pieces near the ground surface, but no footings from a tower.3

From Wellpinit, a dirt road climbs to the summit once the pavement ends, and the author says only one spot would have been hard for a standard vehicle.3 None of the sources says whether visitors need permission from the tribe to go up, or whether the site is open to the public.

  1. Sherwood Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/sherwood.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Sherwood Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/sherwood-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Sherwood Mountain Lookout Site - Spokane Indian Reservation, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/sherwood_mountain/tower_342.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Sherwood Mountain, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/sherwood-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Sherwood 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, access, 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, height, status, agency, 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.