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Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Skull and Crossbones Lookout Site

Skull and Crossbones ridge lookout near Loomis WA: a ground L-4 cab built 1932, sold and helicopter-moved to Horseshoe Basin in 1953; remains on the ridge, cab's fate unknown.

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. The ridge site has no cab; the cab was sold in 1953 and moved by helicopter to Horseshoe Basin, where WillhiteWeb records its fate as unknown; wall, stove parts and cans remain on the ridge

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Original site reached by a roughly 20-mile approach through the Loomis State Forest on roads that change, get abandoned and wash out. Sources name no gate or permit. Level inferred from the route description, not from an agency notice

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 20 miles of approach roads through Loomis State Forest; final road abandoned and not drivable near the top; WillhiteWeb says hiking from the base adds only about 1.5 miles. Horseshoe Basin is within the Pasayten Wilderness
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 1935)

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Ground-level cabGround-mounted L-4 cab (no tower)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,500 ft (1,981 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Okanogan National Forest, per registry and firelookout.com); the registry, firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb also place the site in the Loomis State Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.77506, −119.84521
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-skull-and-crossbones

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at 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. 1932 BuiltGround L-4 cab constructed in 1932; an August 1932 Wenatchee newspaper item reported several lookout houses finished, including one above LoomisSources: willhiteweb.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1933 StaffedDick Loudon was the lookout; he went to a forest training camp in June 1933Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 StaffedM.F. Gadberry named as lookout for 1934; panoramic images taken from the roof at 15 feet above groundSource: willhiteweb.com
  4. 1935 StaffedM.F. Gadberry again at the lookout in 1935Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1935 and 1953
  6. 1953 MovedCab sold and moved by helicopter to Horseshoe Basin for Emmit Smith's cattle grazing permitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. 1956 EventPhoto on the relocated-cab page captioned as showing the cab in 1956Source: willhiteweb.com
  8. 1968 EventSmith permit continued when the eastern part of the North Cascades Primitive Area became the Pasayten WildernessSource: willhiteweb.com
  9. 1969 EventPhoto on the relocated-cab page captioned as Emmet at the cab in 1969Source: willhiteweb.com
  10. No record between 1969 and 2012
  11. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered November 19, 2012 as FFLOS US 1466, WA 366; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  12. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Skull and Crossbones lookout stood on a ridge at 6,500 feet, about 10 miles west-southwest of Loomis in Okanogan County, Washington.1,2,3 Both the registry and firelookout.com name the Okanogan National Forest, yet both also place the site in the Loomis State Forest.1,2

The lookout was a ground-mounted L-4 cab, not one set on a tower, built in the early 1930s.1,2 WillhiteWeb dates construction to 1932, when an August newspaper item reported that two men had finished building several lookout houses, including this one above Loomis.3 It went up here rather than on nearby Big Camp, which was higher, probably because of road access.3 The ridge was also reportedly the setting of a brief early-1900s clash between sheepherders and cattlemen.3

Dick Loudon was the lookout in 1933. M.F. Gadberry held the post in 1934 and again in 1935.3,4

In 1953 the cab was sold and moved by helicopter to Horseshoe Basin.1,2,3 Emmit Smith then used the cab in connection with his grazing permit on National Forest land.5 The area was soon folded into the Pasayten Wilderness, and the permit continued in 1968.5 WillhiteWeb cannot say how long the cab stayed, whether it was demolished, or whether the Smith family moved it again.5

At the original ridge, WillhiteWeb's undated visit photos show a wood and rock wall still standing, stove parts, and cans, one still holding tobacco.3 The Horseshoe Basin cab's fate is unknown, and WillhiteWeb marks it as needing a site visit.5

Getting to the original site means roughly 20 miles of approach roads across the Loomis State Forest, and those roads keep changing and washing out.3 The road up the last stretch is abandoned and cannot be driven near the summit, so visitors walk the final part.3

  1. Skull and Crossbones Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/skull-and-crossbones-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Skull and Crossbones Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/skull.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Skull & Crossbones Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/skull_crossbones_lookout/loomis_forest_103.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Skull and Crossbones, Forest Lookouts (Washington), washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/skull--crossbones.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Skull & Crossbones Relocated Cab, WillhiteWeb.com, https://www.willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/horseshoe_basin_cab/pasayten_wilderness_315.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Skull and Crossbones 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.