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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Silver Star Mountain Lookout Site

Skamania County summit with a 1934 L-4 lookout cab later replaced and removed; staffed into the early 1960s; a foundation remains and hikers reach the summit by trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed; a hiking guide reports that the remains of a foundation are on the summit

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. Summit reached by hiking trails on Gifford Pinchot National Forest land; the north approach needs high clearance and AWD

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A trail from the parking lot merges with the abandoned lookout road after several switchbacks

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab built 1934, later an R-6 flat cab (register and firelookout.com); a rustic flat-roofed house, 15 ft 4 in square, was built in 1954 per a newspaper itemThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
14 ft (4.3 m)
Elevation
4,390 ft (1,338 m)
Agency
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
45.74772, −122.23901
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-silver-star-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 3.9 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. 1929 FireA newspaper item quoted by Forest Lookouts describes the lookout at Silver Star reporting on the Dole fire; the sources do not describe the structure thenSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab built in 1934 (register and firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1942 EventAircraft Warning Service station, activated March 11, 1942; AWS funds paid for sleeping quarters and a woodshedSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 EventAWS station deactivated October 15, 1943; the Forest Service kept the site as a fire detection pointSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1952 EventWikipedia dates installation of a lookout on the higher north peak to 1952; this conflicts with the 1934 cab and the 1952 staffing itemSource: en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1952 StaffedAnne Donnelly had kept the lookout for five years, per an October 2, 1952 Longview Daily News itemSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1954 Replaced by a new structureNew 15 ft 4 in flat-roofed house built July and August 1954, per a September 1954 Longview Daily News itemSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1955 Replaced by a new structureRegister gives R-6 flat cab replacing the L-4 in 1955Source: firetower.org
  9. 1959 StaffedMrs. Robert B. Donnelly said to have served as lookout for several years (Longview Daily News, July 11, 1959)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1962 Last staffedVernon Kinney was lookout for the summer; last staffing in the sources readSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1969 RemovedWikipedia says the north-peak lookout was removed by 1969; the register says the R-6 cab was later removed, with no dateSources: en.wikipedia.org, firetower.org
  12. No record between 1969 and 2012
  13. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 17, 2012 on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  14. 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.

Silver Star Mountain is a bald, exposed peak in Skamania County in southwest Washington.1 It lies in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.2 The 1902 Yacolt Burn reached parts of Skamania County. Wikipedia says 16 more fires in the decades that followed led government agencies to put a lookout on the peak.3

The earliest lookout reference we found is a 1929 newspaper item, quoted by Forest Lookouts. In it, the lookout at Silver Star reported that a steep, timbered ridge could carry a fire quickly into the forest if the wind changed.2 The register and firelookout.com both describe an L-4 cab built in 1934.4,5 Wikipedia dates a lookout on the higher north peak to 1952 and says it was removed by 1969.3 A 1952 newspaper item, however, says the lookout had already been kept for five years by then, so the dates do not agree.2

In October 1952 the Longview Daily News reported, as quoted by Forest Lookouts, that Anne Donnelly, a teacher at R.A. Long High School, had kept the lookout for five years with her two sons.2 A 1954 item put her time there at seven summer seasons.2 In 1959 a Mrs. Robert B. Donnelly was said to have served as lookout for several years, and in 1962 Vernon Kinney worked the lookout for the summer.2

From March 1942 to October 1943 the site served as an Aircraft Warning Service station.2 Money from the AWS also went to sleeping quarters and a woodshed.2 When that service ended, the Forest Service kept the site as a fire detection point.2

A 1954 article describes a rustic new house, 15 feet 4 inches square, built in July and August to replace the old 1934 house. It gives the flat roof as 22 feet square.2 The register instead says an R-6 flat cab replaced the L-4 in 1955 and was later removed.4 The two dates differ by a year, and the sources do not say which is right.4,2

Firelookout.com marks the site as gone and leaves the end of the later cab open.5 Wikipedia says the north-peak lookout was gone by 1969.3 The register gives no removal date.4

The summit is a hiking destination today.1 From the top, the Oregon Hikers guide says, five Cascade volcanoes come into view in clear weather.1 The same guide treats the summit as a former lookout site, pointing to the remains of a foundation on top.1 The north approach currently needs high clearance and all-wheel drive.1 A trail from the parking lot follows the abandoned lookout road for part of the way, and the Will Hite guide advises a high-clearance vehicle on the access road.6 No source describes a cab, tower or other structure standing there now.

  1. Silver Star Mountain, Oregon Hikers field guide, https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Silver_Star_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Silver Star Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/silver-star-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Silver Star Mountain (Skamania County, Washington), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Star_Mountain_(Skamania_County,_Washington) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Silver Star Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/silver-star-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Silver Star Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/silverstar.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Silver Star Mountain - Yacolt Burn State Forest, Will Hite, http://www.willhiteweb.com/hiking/south_cascades/silver_star_mountain/yacolt_forest_187.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

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

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