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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Strawberry Lookout Site

Also known as Strawberry Mountain

Strawberry Mountain site in the Mount St. Helens monument: 1926 cupola cabin by Bill Roe, a 1931 L-4 pole tower removed in the 1950s; metal and cable remain on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in the 1950s, though sources differ on removal versus destruction; summit has cable, possible buried footings and metal

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Hike from a parking area at a pass inside Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument; a Northwest Forest Pass is needed to park. No source says the summit is closed

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Hiking distance under 1 mile from the parking area, per WillhiteWeb

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerShake-sided cupola cabin built in 1926; replaced in 1931 by a 15-foot pole tower with gable-roofed L-4 cabThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Wood
Built
1926
Height
15 ft (4.6 m)
Elevation
5,464 ft (1,665 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.34024, −122.04578
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-strawberry

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 4.1 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. 1926 BuiltShake-sided cupola cabin built by Bill RoeSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1926 First staffedA September 1926 item says Bill Roe lived on the peak and was building the new stationSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1931 Replaced by a new structureCupola replaced by a 15-foot pole tower with gable-roofed L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1931 and 1950
  5. 1950 RemovedRemoved in the 1950s per the register and Hite; firelookout.com says destroyed in the 1950s. The year given is the start of that decade, not a dated recordSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1953 EventA USGS party mentioned the lookout in 1953Source: willhiteweb.com
  7. 1964 ClosedNotice said the three Spirit Lake district lookouts, including Strawberry Mountain, would be closed in summer 1964 except for possible emergency useSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1964 and 2011
  9. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 18, 2011 as US 845, WA 46Source: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Bill Roe built the first lookout on Strawberry Mountain in 1926, a shake-sided cupola cabin in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.1,2,3 A September 1926 item quoted on a Washington lookout history page describes Roe living on the peak and milling his own lumber in a one-man sawmill.4 Several Washington lookouts share the Strawberry Mountain name, so Hite identifies this one by its position at the edge of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.2

In 1931 a 15-foot pole tower with a gable-roofed L-4 cab replaced the cupola.1,2

In May 1964 a newspaper notice quoted on the same history page said that three Spirit Lake district lookouts, Strawberry Mountain among them, would be closed that summer except for possible emergency use.4

The sources disagree on how the 1931 tower ended. The Forest Fire Lookout Association's register says it was removed in the 1950s, and its listing page says it was destroyed in that decade.1,3 Hite also places the removal in the 1950s. He notes that a USGS party mentioned the lookout in 1953, and he reports a trailhead sign that gives the lookout's years as 1931 to 1967.2

Today Hite describes cable and possible buried footings on the summit, along with metal, battery cores, nails and glass.2 Two of his photos are captioned as views from the lookout site, toward Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams, and he calls the view spectacular.2 The Mountaineers list Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument as the land manager and say a Northwest Forest Pass is needed to park.5 Hite puts the hike at under a mile from a parking spot on the pass.2 No source describes a standing structure at the site today, and none says the summit is closed.1,4,2,3,5

  1. Strawberry Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/strawberry-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Strawberry Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/strawberry_mountain_site/gifford_pinchot_244.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Strawberry Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/strawberry155.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Strawberry Mountain, Forest Lookouts Washington, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/strawberry-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Strawberry Mountain Lookout Site, The Mountaineers, https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/routes-places/strawberry-mountain-lookout-site (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Strawberry Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cupola cab built in 1926 by Bill Roe, pictured here
Cupola cab built in 1926 by Bill Roe, pictured here (1926)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tower built in 1931
Tower built in 1931 (1931)Photo: 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, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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: 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, height, status, agency, access, 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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