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Fire lookout · Snohomish County, Washington

Whitechuck Bench Lookout Site

Snohomish County, WA: 20-ft pole L-4 training tower built 1935 by the USFS; WWII AWS post 1942-43; sold and removed 1955; site not confirmed and no source describes it today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Sold and removed in 1955 by a private party for a vacation cabin (Register, firelookout.com, Willhite, Forest Lookouts). Willhite could not find the exact spot after two visits and says the site may be totally gone.

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 tower20-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1935
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
1,225 ft (373 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Snohomish County, Washington
Coordinates
48.17394, −121.47015
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-whitechuck-bench

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 4.3 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. 1935 Built20-foot pole L-4 tower with cab, built in 1935 (Register; Forest Lookouts says a tower with an L-4 cab was erected in 1935)Sources: firetower.org, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 EventPanorama photos taken at the site on July 22, 1935 by George Clisby; Willhite says they show the lookout under constructionSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1942 EventActivated as an Aircraft Warning Service station on April 1, 1942 under the Bellingham Filter Center (Forest Lookouts)Sources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1943 EventAWS station deactivated October 16, 1943 (Forest Lookouts)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1955 RemovedSold and removed by a private party for a vacation cabin (Register, firelookout.com, Willhite); Forest Lookouts says sold to a private party and movedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1955 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 22, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 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 Whitechuck Bench lookout was a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, built in 1935 on a flat bench in Snohomish County, Washington.1,2,3 The site sat on Forest Service land in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, about eight miles southeast of Darrington.1,4,3

George Clisby took panorama photos on July 22, 1935.2 Willhite says those panoramas show the lookout under construction.3 The register gives the elevation as 1,225 feet (373 meters), and firelookout.com agrees on the feet figure, while Willhite's notes say about 1,120 feet.1,4,3

The lookout was mostly used to train lookouts, according to the register and firelookout.com.1,4 Willhite thinks training was likely its main use.3 He notes that it had a near line of sight to the Darrington Ranger Station's lookout school, which had its own training tower, so trainees could take sightings between the two.3

During the Second World War, the Aircraft Warning Service used the site.3 The AWS was a civilian service within the Army's Ground Observer Corps.5 Forest Lookouts gives the activation dates as April 1, 1942, and deactivation as October 16, 1943, under the Bellingham Filter Center.2 Willhite says AWS money paid for a 10-by-20-foot living cabin, which stayed on after the war.3 He also names two AWS observers, Nels Skaar and Elmer E. Linn, but does not give their dates.3

In 1955 a private party bought the lookout and removed it for use as a vacation cabin.1,3 Forest Lookouts says it was sold to a private party and moved.2 Willhite notes that the lookout was taken down rather than burned, so he expects no relics on the ground.3

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today. Willhite visited twice and could not find the exact spot.3 He thinks it lay in the area of a lower rock quarry, so the site may be gone altogether.3 Most of the bench has since regrown into second-growth forest.3 His directions run from Darrington south on the Mountain Loop Highway, then up FS Road #22, where a gravel pit on the left marks the likely location.3 We found no source that says whether the site is open to visitors, so check with the Forest Service before going.

  1. Whitechuck Bench Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/whitechuck-bench-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Whitechuck Bench, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/whitechuck-bench.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. White Chuck Bench Former Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/fire_lookouts/white_chuck_bench/black_oak_221.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Whitechuck Bench Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/whitechuckbench.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Aircraft Warning Service, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_warning_service (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Whitechuck Bench Lookout Site
Photo: 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, 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: design, 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

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