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Fire lookout · Ferry County, Washington

Twin Sisters Lookout Site

Colville National Forest lookout on Twin Sisters: a 30-foot timber tower built in 1966 and gone by 1975; footings noted in 2011; old site reached by a jeep trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1975; a 2011 visit found footings and views remained; no source describes a standing structure today

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. Forest Service jeep route #109, open April 1 to November 30; no closure mentioned; trail only periodically cleared

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Turnoff north about 0.97 miles to a parking area below the peak; the Forest Service asks visitors not to drive to the top because of nails on the ground and says to hike the rest

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cabThe design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1966
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
5,967 ft (1,819 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Ferry County, Washington
Coordinates
48.72211, −118.36815
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-twin-sisters

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 4.4 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. 1966 Built30-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1975 RemovedGone by 1975; the sources do not say how the tower came downSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1975 and 2011
  4. 2011 Condition assessmentVisit report (Rod Fosback, October 1, 2011): footings and views remainSource: firetower.org
  5. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered with the FFLOS register: November 23, 2012Source: firetower.org
  6. 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.

Twin Sisters is a summit in Ferry County, about 12 miles southwest of Orient, within the Colville National Forest.1 A lookout tower went up there in 1966.2,1,3 It stood 30 feet tall, was built of treated timber, and had an R-6 flat cab.2,1,3

All three sources say the tower was gone by 1975.2,1,3 A visit on October 1, 2011 reported that the footings and the views are still there.2

Today the old lookout is reached by a Forest Service jeep trail.4 A branch off Route #109 runs roughly 0.97 miles north to a parking area below the peak.4 The Forest Service says the old lookout stood at the top, and it asks drivers not to go all the way up because many nails remain on the ground.4 Visitors are asked to get out below the top and hike the rest of the way.4 The route is open from April 1 to November 30.4 The agency says contractors clear the trail only periodically, so it may not be fully passable.4 The agency describes the site as a strong place for views and photographs.4 A 2011 visit report gives two options: the jeep trail, or walking an old stock driveway.2 Willhite says today's trails also ran over the summit in the 1930s.3

  1. Twin Sisters Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/twinsisters.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Twin Sisters Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/twin-sisters-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Twin Sisters Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb Washington Fire Lookouts, https://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/twin_sisters_lookout_site/jeep_223.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Twin Sisters Jeep Route #109, Colville National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/colville/recreation/trails/twin-sisters-jeep-route-109 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

October 2011 photo
October 2011 photo (2011)Photo: Rod Fosback, via 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, 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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