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Fire lookout · Lewis County, Washington

Tatoosh Ridge Lookout Site

A camp in 1930 and a 1933 L-4 cab on Tatoosh Peak in the Tatoosh Wilderness; removed or destroyed in 1966. A visitor found no traces at the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1966; a visitor's account found no traces at the summit

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 into the Tatoosh Wilderness; the road to the trailhead can be rough or washed out

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Willhite lists 4.5 miles and 3,600 feet of gain from the trailhead

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab built in 1933 after a camp in 1930 (nwhiker.com gives 1932)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,310 ft (1,923 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lewis County, Washington
Coordinates
46.70618, −121.66465
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-tatoosh-ridge

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 3.7 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 EventSite started as a campSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1931 StaffedObserver Clarence Thompson went home after hurting his kneeSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab built; nwhiker.com says 1932Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1934 EventPanoramic photos taken from the lookoutSource: willhiteweb.com
  5. 1943 First staffedPackwood district assigned its first woman lookout, Martha HardySource: alpinelily.com
  6. 1954 StaffedA newspaper item said Gilbert Lee was to be stationed on TatooshSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1966 RemovedRegister says removed in 1966; Rex's page and Willhite say destroyed in 1966Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1966 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered June 20, 2012Source: 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.

Tatoosh Ridge started as a camp in 1930, and a 1933 L-4 cab went up on the summit inside the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just south of Mount Rainier National Park.1,2,3,4 The nwhiker.com guide calls the site the former site of a fire lookout built in 1932, so the build year is not settled.5

In 1931 the observer, Clarence Thompson, had to go home after he hurt his knee.6,3 Panoramic photos were taken from the lookout in 1934.3

In 1943 the Packwood district assigned its first woman lookout to Tatoosh Ridge, Seattle schoolteacher Martha Hardy.4 She wrote a book about that summer, which Willhite says was published by Macmillan in 1946.3,4 Willhite also notes that a photo contributor's parents worked as lookouts in the 1940s.3

In 1954 a newspaper item said Gilbert Lee, from Hawaii, was set to staff the Tatoosh lookout.6

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the cab was removed in 1966, while Rex's page and Willhite say it was destroyed that year.1,2,3

A visitor's account says the lookout is long gone, and that the author looked for traces of it at the summit and found none.4 Willhite notes a USGS benchmark placed in 1946 three feet south of the lookout, but no source I read says whether it is still there.3

Willhite gives the route as 4.5 miles with 3,600 feet of gain, and says the access road is gravel that can get rough at the end.3 The visitor's account says the road was washed out before the trailhead on that trip.4 The summit lies inside the Tatoosh Wilderness, so this is a hike, not a drive-up.3 Plan for a long day on foot, and check road conditions before you go.

  1. Tatoosh Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/tatoosh-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Tatoosh Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/tatoosh.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tatoosh Peak, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/mount_rainier_national_park/tatoosh_peak/gifford_pinchot_forest_169.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Hiking History: Tatoosh, Alpine Lily, https://www.alpinelily.com/tatoosh/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Tatoosh Wilderness Area, nwhiker.com, http://nwhiker.com/CDgifford/wilderness-tatoosh.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Tatoosh Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/tatoosh-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tatoosh Ridge Lookout Site
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.

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. 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, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.