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Fire lookout · Columbia County, Washington

Thorn Point Lookout Site

Columbia Co., WA DNR wooden tower built about 1960-62 (sources differ), removed 1996; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower was removed in 1996. No source describes what remains at the site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

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

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot wooden DNR tower with a cab, replacing an L-4 tower of the 1940sThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1940
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
3,138 ft (957 m)
Agency
Washington Dept. of Natural Resources
Land
State land
Location
Columbia County, Washington
Coordinates
46.30060, −117.87592
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-thorn-point

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. 1940 BuiltL-4 tower in the 1940s; no exact year given.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1940 and 1960
  3. 1960 Built40-foot wooden DNR tower built about 1960 per the register and Firelookout.com; WillhiteWeb says around 1962.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1963 EventA survey crew set a station on top of the tower, described as a 10-foot square wood house on a 4-legged wooden tower, about 75 feet overall.Sources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1970 EventMarch 1970 newspaper item: station broken into three times; damage and value of articles estimated at $460.Source: willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1970 and 1996
  7. 1996 RemovedTower removed.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  8. No record between 1996 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered in the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on December 17, 2012.Source: 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.

The Thorn Point lookout stood in Columbia County, Washington, a few miles from Dayton.1,2 Firelookout.com puts it four miles east of town, while a 1963 survey description puts its station five miles east-southeast.1,2

The first lookout here was an L-4 tower in the 1940s.3,4 Sources disagree on when the replacement went up. The register and Firelookout.com date a 40-foot wooden tower built by the Washington Department of Natural Resources to about 1960. WillhiteWeb says around 1962, when a state biennial report called it a replacement.3,1,4,2

In 1963 a survey crew set a station on top of the tower and described it as a ten-foot square wood house on a four-legged wooden tower, about 75 feet overall.4,2 That height does not match the 40-foot figure, and none of the pages we read explains the gap.3,1

In March 1970 a newspaper reported that the station had been broken into three times. The article listed damage to the structure and said the value of articles was estimated at $460. It placed the station near Dayton in the Umatilla National Forest and said it was maintained cooperatively with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.4

The tower was removed in 1996.3,1,4

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Thorn Point Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/thornpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Thorne Point - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/thorne-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Thorn Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/thorn-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Thorne Point Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/thorne_point_lookout/tower_231.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Thorn Point 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, 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: height, ownership, 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, height, status, 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.