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Fire lookout · Okanogan County, Washington

Tunk Mountain Lookout

A 1933 Forest Service detection lookout was replaced in 1966 by a state timber tower; the cab is now privately owned and locked, and sources disagree on who holds the site.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Privately owned and locked per TrailChick (updated March 2026); the summit area is open to the public, the cab is not.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Road reported relatively well maintained in November 2017; snow stopped the visitor about a mile below the lookout. Cab is locked; do not climb or enter.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2026)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower14x14-ft DNR cab on a 40-ft timber tower (1966); original 1933 cab was L-4 on a 40-ft pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
6,056 ft (1,846 m)
Agency
Washington Dept. of Natural Resources (NHLR administrator; other sources describe private ownership)
Land
Federal land
Location
Okanogan County, Washington
Coordinates
48.54542, −119.23633
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-tunk-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.

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. 1933 BuiltU.S. Forest Service detection lookout: L-4 cab on a 40-ft pole tower. All three sources give 1933.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1952
  3. 1952 Staffedfirelookout.com lists named lookout staff from 1952 to 1962; 1953-1954 marked not staffed.Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1966 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1966 Replaced by a new structurePole tower replaced by the current 40-ft timber tower with a 14x14-ft DNR cab.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, trailchick.com
  6. No record between 1966 and 2004
  7. 2004 EventNHLR: lookout purchased by American Resources.Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2005 EventEastern Washington FFLA chapter took up local management and performed some maintenance; not described as a restoration.Source: firelookout.org
  9. 2005 RestoredChapter took over local management of the lookout and carried out some maintenance.Source: firelookout.org
  10. 2005 StaffedPaid contractor staffed the lookout about one month while Bonaparte Lookout was renovated. The chapter report calls the contractor a Forest Service contractor and does not name a firm.Sources: firelookout.org, nhlr.org
  11. 2006 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, January 2, 2006.Source: nhlr.org
  12. No record between 2006 and 2021
  13. 2021 StaffedTemporarily staffed from Bonaparte during the Spur/Walker Creek Fire, after the Bonaparte lookout was evacuated.Source: trailchick.com
  14. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Tunk Mountain stands in Okanogan County, Washington, roughly 15 miles southeast of Tonasket.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service built the summit's first lookout in 1933 to spot fires.3 Its original cab was an L-4 model on a 40-foot pole tower.1,3

In the 1950s Washington's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) took over the tower.1 A 40-foot timber tower replaced the pole in 1966; its cab measures 14 by 14 feet.1,3

A list on firelookout.com names lookout staff from 1952 to 1962, with 1953 and 1954 marked not staffed.2 In 2005 a contractor hired by the Forest Service spent about a month in the tower while Bonaparte Lookout was under renovation.4 That year the local chapter also took over management and did some maintenance.4 NHLR tells a different story: it says American Resources bought the lookout in 2004 and staffed it for a month in 2005.1 In 2021 TrailChick reports that the lookout was temporarily staffed from Bonaparte, whose own lookout had to evacuate during the Spur/Walker Creek Fire.3

After years of neglect, the tower was declared surplus in the 1990s.3 NHLR says W.R. Morrison then bought it and kept it on site under a special use permit.1 firelookout.com dates a private purchase to the mid-1990s and says ownership had passed to the State of Washington before that.2

Today TrailChick, last updated in March 2026, says the lookout is privately owned and locked, although the summit area is open to the public and volunteers maintain the structure.3 NHLR still lists the state's Department of Natural Resources as administrator, so the sources disagree about who controls the site now.1 On a November 2017 visit the road was in reasonably good repair, but snow turned the visitor back a mile short of the lookout.3 The cab is locked, so do not expect to go inside.3

  1. Tunk Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/tunk-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tunk Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/tunk.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Tunk Mountain, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/tunk-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. 2005 Eastern Washington Area Chapter Annual Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-we-2005.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tunk Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tunk Mtn. in 1957
Tunk Mtn. in 1957 (1957)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Tunk Mtn. in 2000
Tunk Mtn. in 2000 (2000)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Tunk Mountain Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.com) · 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 the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1966
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1933
    • TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts: 1966

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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. 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: design, height, photos, 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 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
  5. 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
  6. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: ownership, photos, links TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.