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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Stranger Mountain Lookout

Also known as Stranger (Stensgar) Mountain Lookout Site

A relocated DNR lookout above Chewelah, WA, staffed into 1994 and moved whole by crane to the Colville fairgrounds in 2008.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Crystal Ridge · Now at the Colville Fairgrounds

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerDNR flattop live-in cab with catwalk on a 42-ft wooden tower (built 1983)The design: L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1930
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,782 ft (1,762 m)
Agency
Washington Dept. of Natural Resources
Land
Unknown
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
48.18131, −117.99000
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-stranger-mountain

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.5 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. 1930 BuiltFirst lookout: platform tower and cabin built by the Washington Division of ForestrySource: nhlr.org
  2. 1936 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 50-ft pole tower with L-6 (7'x7') cabSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  3. No record between 1936 and 1959
  4. 1959 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 40-ft wooden tower with DNR flattop live-in cabSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  5. No record between 1959 and 1983
  6. 1983 BuiltCurrent 42-ft wooden tower with DNR flattop cab and catwalkSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  7. 1994 Last staffedLast staffed during the 1994 fire season per FFLOSSource: firetower.org
  8. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered per NHLR detail page: March 1, 2003Source: NHLR register entry
  9. 2008 MovedMoved intact ~30 miles to the Colville (Stevens County) fairgrounds after DNR needed the summit for a Homeland Security facilitySources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  10. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: December 17, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  11. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Crystal Ridge.Source: FFLA
  12. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to the Colville Fairgrounds.Source: FFLA
  13. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The mountain near Chewelah, Washington, shows up on most maps as Stensgar, but the lookout that stood on it has always gone by Stranger.1 Fire detection there began in 1930, when the Washington Division of Forestry put up a platform tower and cabin on the summit.1 That structure lasted only until 1936, when it was replaced by a 50-foot pole tower carrying a small live-in cab.1,2 A standard 40-foot wooden tower with a DNR flattop cab went up in 1959, and twenty-four years later, in 1983, that gave way to the tower that still exists today: a 42-foot wooden tower with a flattop cab and catwalk.1

A lookout on duty had a wide circle to watch: the Columbia Basin and Spokane to the south, Montana to the east, the Cascade Range to the west, and Canada to the north.2 The register of former lookout sites records that this tower was staffed as late as the "tinder-dry" 1994 fire season, after which it was no longer used to spot smokes.2

Its working life was not its end. The Washington Department of Natural Resources eventually needed the summit for a Homeland Security facility, and after two years of negotiation with Stevens County, the fair manager arranged for the cab and catwalk to be lifted off the tower by a construction crane already working on the mountaintop. The load was trucked some thirty miles to downtown Colville, where forklifts set it on the ground at the county fairgrounds in 2008 while the tower's own legs were re-set on new concrete piers nearby; days later, another crane that happened to be free that afternoon lifted the cab and catwalk back onto those legs.1,2 By Ray Kresek's account, the move relied on a fleet of donated trucks and forklifts, and in cash terms cost just "$25. The rest was all donated."1

The tower is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register, but the site it once watched over is now occupied by other facilities, not a working lookout.1 What survives is the cab itself, re-erected and on public display at the Colville fairgrounds rather than back on a ridge.

  1. Stranger Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/stranger-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Stranger (Stensgar) Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/stranger-stensgar-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Stranger Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Stranger Mountain Lookout at Colville Fairgrounds 2008
Stranger Mountain Lookout at Colville Fairgrounds 2008 (2008)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stranger Mountain Lookout
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1957
1957 (1957)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Twins, 1984
Twins, 1984 (1984)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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: register numbers, 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, 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.