Stranger Mountain Lookout (now at the Colville Fairgrounds)

The lookout that now stands at the Northeast Washington Fairgrounds in Colville began on Stranger Mountain near Chewelah, which most maps call Stensgar.¹ The Washington Division of Forestry first used the summit for fire detection in 1930, the register says, when it put up a platform tower and cabin.¹ Another history site dates that first platform to 1929 and credits the Washington Forest Fire Association with helping build it.² By the register's chronology, the cab that later went to Colville was the flattop live-in cab put up in 1983 on a 42-foot wooden tower.^1,3

The tower was last staffed during the "tinder-dry" 1994 fire season.³ A 2004 visit report on the register, written while the lookout was still on the mountain, says the tower and cab "appear to have been kept in excellent condition."¹

The move came in 2008.^1,3 The register says the lookout had to be taken off the mountain while a new Homeland Security facility was installed there.¹ The 2008 chapter report of the Forest Fire Lookout Association gives a different reason: electronics interests wanted the very site the lookout occupied.⁴ The register's photo caption dates the Colville display to 2008, and the lookout sites register gives the same year for the move.^1,3

The accounts also disagree about what was moved. Ray Kresek's account, reproduced on the register, says a crane lifted the entire cab and catwalk off a 40-foot tower, using close to a dozen donated pieces of heavy equipment, after two years of negotiation with the state, and that the tower's original legs were re-set on concrete piers at the fairgrounds. He gives the total cost as $25.¹ The 2008 chapter report describes volunteers moving the cab, with help from the Colville chapter.⁴ The lookout sites register says the tower was moved, and the register's own description gives the current tower as 42 feet.^3,1

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's 2009 chapter report places the relocated DNR lookout at the fairgrounds, and its 2012 Western conference report lists guided tours of the lookout there.^5,6 The register also has an undated visit report by Rod Fosback, written after the 2004 visit. He says the structure is still very sound, but vandals have disabled its lightning protection, and a couple of windows are broken.¹ The report does not say where the structure stood when he visited, so it does not show the structure's condition today. We found no recent condition note, so whether the structure is open to visitors today is unknown. Check with the fairgrounds before going, and do not climb it without permission.