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Fire lookout · Klickitat County, Washington

Simcoe Butte Lookout Site

Klickitat County summit with a 1948 L-5 cab tower, removed or destroyed in 1958 and replaced by Sopelia; the summit is Yakama Nation land, so ask permission first.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. Summit is officially on Yakama Nation land, and most of the reservation is closed to non-tribal visitors; ask the Yakama Nation before going

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed or destroyed in 1958; the Sopelia lookout that replaced it burned in 2013; no source describes remains on the summit

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerWooden ring-connected tower with an L-5 cab (10 ft per register and firelookout.com; 12 ft per the 1948 sources)The design: L-5
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1948
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,798 ft (1,462 m)
Agency
Yakama Nation (the register lists the Yakima Indian Reservation); tower built by the state Division of Forestry in 1948
Land
Tribal land
Location
Klickitat County, Washington
Coordinates
46.00067, −120.70416
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-simcoe-butte

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 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. 1941 EventA survey party described a temporary fire lookout on the summit: a rock windbreak and a field telephoneSource: willhiteweb.com
  2. 1948 BuiltState Division of Forestry built a 12-foot ring-connected tower with an L-5 cab (Willhite); the register and firelookout.com give 10 ftSources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1958 Destroyedfirelookout.com says the tower was destroyed in 1958; conflicts with the register's 'removed'Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1958 RemovedRegister says the tower was removed in 1958Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1959 Replaced by a new structureSopelia lookout, an R-6 flat cab on concrete pillars, built the following year on a nearby site to replace the Simcoe Butte lookoutSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1959 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 15, 2012 as US 1381, WA 281Source: firetower.org
  8. 2013 BurnedNearby Sopelia lookout burned in a 2013 forest fireSource: firetower.org
  9. 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.

Simcoe Butte is about 13 miles north-northeast of Goldendale, in Klickitat County, Washington.1,2 The summit lies on the Yakama Reservation, which the register calls the Yakima Indian Reservation.3,2

Before any tower, a survey party in 1941 described a temporary fire lookout on the summit, made of a rock windbreak and a field telephone.3 In 1948 the Division of Forestry put up a 12-foot ring-connected tower topped by an L-5 cab.3 A Goldendale newspaper item from that year, quoted by Forest Lookouts, called the planned site Frog (Conlee) Butte.4 The same page quotes the 1948 Annual Report, which places the tower on the divide above Satus Pass.4 The register and firelookout.com both give the tower as 10 feet tall, which does not match the 12 feet in the 1948 sources.2,1,3,4

The register says the tower was removed in 1958, and firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2,1 Willhite says it was replaced by the nearby Sopelia lookout the following year.3 The Sopelia register says its 1959 cab replaced the Simcoe Butte lookout, and that a 2013 forest fire burned it.5

Today the summit is reached by a road across state land, which Willhite calls good for most vehicles.3 The same guide says the summit is officially Yakama Nation land, and that the route passes gated private properties with old signs that mention the Yakama Tribe.3 TrailChick says most of the reservation is off-limits to non-tribal members, and visitors are rarely admitted.6 The writer was told the only way onto reservation land was to be a tribal member, the spouse of one, or part of a work party, so anyone thinking of going should ask the Yakama Nation first.6

Willhite describes a fallen radio tower at a communications site on the ridge before the butte, which looks similar to a metal fire lookout.3 We found no source that describes what remains of the 1948 tower on the summit.

  1. Simcoe Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/simcoebutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Simcoe Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/simcoe-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Simcoe Butte Lookout Site, Will Hite, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/simcoe_butte_lookout/status_pass_235.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Simcoe Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/simcoe-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Sopelia Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/sopelia-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Visiting the Yakama Reservation Fire Lookouts, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/visiting-the-yakama-reservation/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Simcoe Butte 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, 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, status, agency, access, 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.