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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Spokane Mountain Lookout Site

D-6 cupola cabin built 1934 on the Spokane Indian Reservation; abandoned 1964; burned in the 2015 Carpenter Road Fire; no source describes the site now.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Ask the tribe before visiting.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in the 2015 Carpenter Road Fire

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Turn from West End Road about a mile west of Turtle Lake recreation area; the turn is not signed. The trip report describes a dirt road in fair condition for most vehicles, but it predates the fire.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cabinThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,870 ft (1,180 m)
Agency
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Land
Tribal land
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
47.95661, −118.07936
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-spokane-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.0 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. 1934 BuiltD-6 cupola cabin constructed on the siteSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1964
  3. 1964 AbandonedAbandoned when a steel tower went up on Wellpinit Mountain; Willhite says the Wellpinit site had better views and utilitiesSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, trailchick.com
  4. No record between 1964 and 2015
  5. 2015 BurnedBurned in the Carpenter Road Fire; the register's Removed field also gives 2015Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, firelookout.com
  6. 2015 Removed'Removed' field on FFLOS detail page: "2015".Source: FFLOS register entry
  7. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 16, 2020 as US 2013, WA 495Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

Spokane Mountain sits on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Stevens County, Washington, at about 3,870 feet.1,2 The Bureau of Indian Affairs is listed as the administrator of the site.1 A D-6 cupola cabin went up on the mountain in 1934, and the register calls it one of a small number of surviving examples of its style.1,3

The cabin stopped being used in 1964.1 That year a steel tower went up on Wellpinit Mountain, and Willhite's trip report says the Wellpinit location made a better viewpoint and already had utilities.1,3,4

The cabin burned in a forest fire in 2015.3,2 A Forest Lookouts page also dates the burning to 2015.5 Willhite and TrailChick call the fire the Carpenter Road Fire, and TrailChick puts its size at 64,000 acres.3,4 The register lists 2015 under "Removed," but its description says the lookout burned that year.1

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains of the cabin today. The trip report we read used photographs taken about a month before the fire, and it gives drive-up directions from West End Road on a dirt road.3 The sources do not say whether visitors may go up now. The land is administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so check with the reservation before going.1

  1. Spokane Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/spokane-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Spokane Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/spokmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Spokane Mountain Lookout - Spokane Indian Reservation, WillhiteWeb, https://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/spokane_mountain_lookout/tower_338.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Wellpinit Mountain Lookout, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/wellpinit-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Spokane Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/spokane-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Spokane Mountain Lookout
Spokane Mountain LookoutPhoto: Rex Kamstra, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Spokane Mountain Lookout
Spokane Mountain LookoutPhoto: Eric Willhite, via 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, 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, ownership, access, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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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