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Fire lookout · Stevens County, Washington

Wellpinit Mountain Lookout

Spokane reservation steel tower built 1964 to replace a lookout four miles north; staffed each fire season and still in use.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On the Spokane Indian Reservation, administered by the reservation. The sources read do not describe visitor rules; ask the tribal administration before any visit.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
TrailChick reports a road of about 3 miles to the summit; a high-clearance 4WD may be needed depending on the season.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower53 ft steel tower with live-in cabThe design: D-6
Built of
Steel
Built
1964
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
3,350 ft (1,021 m)
Agency
Spokane Indian Reservation
Land
Tribal land
Location
Stevens County, Washington
Coordinates
47.88658, −118.02097
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-wellpinit-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 4.1 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. 1962 EventSite change discussed: the original survey planned the tower for Spokane Butte; a December 1962 reply proposed Wellpinit Mountain with a 40-foot cabin tower, citing electric service and better reservation coverage; TrailChick says the Colville suggested the site for wider views and electrical serviceSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1964 Built53 ft steel tower with live-in cab; replaced the Spokane Mountain lookout four miles to the northSources: nhlr.org, trailchick.com, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1964 and 2010
  4. 2010 FireThe lookout called in the Line FireSource: nhlr.org
  5. 2021 FireThe Sherwood Fire, started from a lightning storm, came within a mile or two of the lookoutSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 13, 2022 as US 1563, WA 90Source: nhlr.org
  7. 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.

Wellpinit Mountain Lookout stands on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Stevens County, Washington.1,2 Its 53-foot steel tower was built in 1964 and replaced an older lookout on Spokane Mountain, four miles to the north.1,3

The site has an earlier history. TrailChick gives 1933 as the year the site was established, but the register dates the current structure to 1964, and the sources do not say what stood on the summit before then.2,1

The tower was not first planned for this spot. Letters from late 1962, quoted by a lookout-history site, say the original survey had planned it for Spokane Butte.4 A December 1962 reply gave Wellpinit Mountain as the first choice, with a 40-foot cabin tower, and said electric service was available there and that coverage of the reservation would be better.4 TrailChick adds that the Colville suggested the site because it offered wider views and electrical service.2 The tower that went up is 53 feet tall.1

The lookout is staffed each fire season, according to TrailChick, and firelookout.com says every summer.2,3 In 2010 it called in the Line Fire.1 In 2021 the Sherwood Fire, which was sparked by lightning, came within a mile or two of it.1

TrailChick also notes that the mountain figures in Sherman Alexie's novel Reservation Blues.2

The register recorded the lookout on April 13, 2022, as US 1563.1

Today the register lists the lookout as administered by the Spokane Indian Reservation.1 TrailChick reports a road of about three miles to the summit, and it says a high-clearance 4WD could be needed depending on the season.2 Because the land is tribal, ask the tribal administration before any visit, since the pages read for this story do not spell out visitor rules.1,2

  1. Wellpinit Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/wellpinit-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Wellpinit Mountain, TrailChick, https://www.trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/wellpinit-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Wellpinit Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/wellpinit.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Wellpinit Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/wellpinit-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Wellpinit Mountain Lookout
Wellpinit Mountain LookoutPhoto: Christine Estrada, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wellpinit Mtn. L.O.
Wellpinit Mtn. L.OPhoto: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Wellpinit 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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: 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 LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height 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. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: what it is built of, photos 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
  6. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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