FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Pend Oreille County, Washington

South Fork Mountain Lookout Site

Kaniksu NF site in Pend Oreille County, WA: 40-ft pole tower with L-4 cab built 1935, abandoned 1936, no longer standing; FFLOS-registered 2020.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The lookout is no longer standing; a Washington lookout index lists it as removed.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. No source read says whether the site is open to visitors.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
4,203 ft (1,281 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pend Oreille County, Washington
Coordinates
48.67902, −117.12817
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-south-fork-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 4.2 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. 1935 Built40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab constructedSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1936 AbandonedTower and cab abandoned, about a year after constructionSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 2020
  4. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites on April 20, 2020Source: firetower.org
  5. 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.

South Fork Mountain is a former lookout site on the Kaniksu National Forest in Pend Oreille County, Washington, at 4,203 feet.1 The U.S. Forest Service administers the land.1 A 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up there in 1935.1,2

The tower had a short working life.1,2 The tower and its cab were given up in 1936, a year after construction.1,2 WillhiteWeb counts five other lookout sites within four miles, and places Orwig just 2.3 miles to the north.2

A Washington lookout index lists the site as removed.3 Another listing simply calls the lookout gone.4 The Former Fire Lookout Sites entry says the lookout has come down.1 The register added the site on April 20, 2020.1

The sources we read do not describe what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether visitors may go there.1,4,2,3

  1. South Fork Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/south-fork-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. South Fork Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/south_fork_mountain_lookout/tower_218.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. South Fork Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/south-fork-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. South Fork Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/southforkmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, 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, access, staffing, 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.