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Fire lookout · Klickitat County, Washington

Sopelia Lookout Site

R-6 flat cab built 1959 on Klickitat County ground, replacing Simcoe Butte; burned in the 2013 Mile Marker 28 Fire; land described as privately owned, no trespass.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Willhite: a private timber owner owns the land; access marked landowner-only, no trespass. Register and Firelookout place it on the Yakama Indian Reservation, so ownership is disputed in the sources

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in the 2013 Mile Marker 28 Fire; Willhite says the burned lookout can be seen from the air

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabR-6 flat cab on concrete pillarsThe design: R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1959
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,589 ft (1,399 m)
Agency
Bureau of Indian Affairs (register); Yakima Indian Agency (Washington Lookouts)
Land
Unknown
Location
Klickitat County, Washington
Coordinates
45.99607, −120.60122
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-sopelia

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. 1959 BuiltR-6 flat cab on concrete pillars; first and only lookout structure on the site (register, Firelookout, Willhite)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1959 Replaced by a new structureReplaced the nearby Simcoe Butte LookoutSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1959 and 2013
  4. 2013 BurnedWashington Lookouts dates the burn to July 25, 2013, when the Mile Marker 28 Fire overran the unused cabSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 2013 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "2013".Source: FFLOS register entry
  6. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 15, 2020 as US 2001, WA 490Source: firetower.org
  7. 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.

The Sopelia site got its cab in 1959: an R-6 flat cab raised on concrete pillars.1,2 The register says it took the place of the nearby Simcoe Butte Lookout.1 Firelookout and Willhite both say it was the site's sole lookout structure.2,3

Sources agree that the cab burned in 2013.1,2,3 Washington Lookouts dates the burn to July 25, 2013, when the Mile Marker 28 Fire overran it.4 Willhite says it sat unused for many years, while the register describes several years of abandonment.3,1

Willhite says the land belongs to a private timber owner, and he lists access as limited to the landowner, with no trespass.3 He adds that the burned lookout is visible from the air, and that the site name is laid out in white rocks.3 The register and Firelookout both place the site on the Yakama Indian Reservation,1,2 and the register names the Bureau of Indian Affairs as administrator.1 The sources do not agree on who owns or manages the ground, so Willhite's no-trespass note is the one to heed.

  1. Sopelia Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/sopelia-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Sopelia Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/sopelia.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Sopelia Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/sopelia_lookout_site/fire_041.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Sopelia, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/sopelia.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Sopelia Lookout (no date)
Sopelia Lookout (no date)Photo: Rex Kamstra collection, via 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, 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: what it is built of, design, 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.