At one time, there were more than 700 fire lookouts standing all over Washington state. Of those historic structures, only 93 remain.
Craig Willis of Everett noticed that trend and decides he couldn’t miss out on seeing one more lookout. So he started an ambitious journey to visit all 93 of the Washington fire lookouts still standing at their officially used locations. He visited 39 of them this year alone. From all indications, Willis is the first person to complete that list.
His journey began and ended in Snohomish County. The first lookout he visited was Mount Pilchuck, a classic Snohomish County hike. In early August, he finished up by reaching Three Fingers, a challenging 36-mile trek that requires some scrambling and the use of an ice ax.
Willis had always been interested in hiking in general, and in lookouts in particular.
“What made me jump into a different gear to see them was I missed out on seeing some of them by just a few weeks,” he said.
Lone Mountain Lookout, which he’d seen high on a peak his whole life, came down just before he had planned to visit it.
Willis would love to see more people visiting lookouts, and hopefully advocating for their preservation. Lookouts are at risk from the elements, many are extremely exposed on their high peaks, and also at risk of being removed by agencies for safety or other reasons.
“I’m a firm believer people are willing to save what they understand,” he said. “I think people are more willing to save lookouts if they have seen them and cared about them.”
Willis certainly cares about them. Reaching all of them was a massive undertaking physically, of course. But before he could even get to all of them, he had to do a lot of research. Some lookouts have plenty of information available about them and they are visited regularly. Some though, have been ignored by the masses and it was difficult to get details on them. He made trips to see lookouts that he wasn’t even sure were still standing, such as Strawberry Mountain. He said those trips were some of the most rewarding.
Also rewarding was connecting with other people who love lookouts. Willis made about 40 percent of the trips with his good friend Paul Michelson.
“We became better friends and more active as lookout enthusiasts as a result of our trips together,” Willis said. Michelson is also working toward visiting all of the lookouts on this list.
Willis had a hard time narrowing down his favorite lookouts from his journey, but he did say Three Fingers was high on his list.
“It’s one of the best, and it’s right here in our own county.”
He liked Meadow Butte, which is at the top of a tree — totally different from most lookouts. He also enjoyed visiting Goodman Hill, which is on a military base, a totally different environment than where you’d expect to see a lookout. And that’s a big part of the point of his journey. If you’ve seen one lookout, you most certainly haven’t seen them all.
“I strongly believe that once people go to these lookouts and the more they go to, the more they will want to go to them. And they will realize that they are historic, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. … Each lookout has its own appeal. Just like the mountains in Washington, you need to enjoy it in its entirety, you need to enjoy the variety of them.”
Willis didn’t start out to be the first to finish this list. He simply wanted to see as many lookouts as he could and spread the word about them.
“Ultimately by completing this list, my goal is to bring more awareness to lookouts and hopefully get more people interested in visiting them. And once they do, hopefully they’ll want to join efforts to preserve them, and maybe we won’t be losing lookout towers and sites at such an alarming rate.”
Remaining lookouts
Craig Willis’ list of the lookouts in Washington state still standing in their original sites.
- Aeneas Mountain, 5167 feet, Okanogan County
- Armstrong Mountain, 4587 feet, Okanogan County
- Big Butte, 5009 feet, Asotin County
- Buck Mountain, 6135 feet, Okanogan County
- Burley Mountain, 5304 feet, Lewis County
- Clearwater Lookout, 5660 feet, Garfield County
- Cody Butte, 4764 feet, Ferry County
- Columbia Mountain, 6782 feet, Ferry County
- Copper Mountain, 6265 feet, Whatcom County
- Cornell Butte, 5096 feet, Okanogan County
- Darrington Ranger Station, 540 feet, Snohomish County
- Desolation Peak, 6102 feet, Whatcom County
- Diamond Peak Patrol Tower, 4320 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Dodger Point, 5760 feet, Jefferson County
- Evergreen Mountain, 5587 feet, Snohomish County
- First Butte, 5491 feet, Okanogan County
- Franson Peak, 3786 feet, Ferry County
- Funk Mountain, 5121 feet, Okanogan County
- Goat Peak, 7001 feet, Okanogan County
- Gobblers Knob, 5485 feet,Pierce County
- Gold Mountain, 4686 feet, Ferry County
- Goodman Hill, 480 feet, Pierce County
- Granite Mountain, 5629 feet, King County
- Green Mountain, 6500 feet, Snohomish County
- Grizzly Mountain, 6381 feet, Ferry County
- Heybrook Ridge, 1701 feet, Snohomish County
- Hidden Lake Peaks, 6890 feet, Skagit County
- High Rock, 5685 feet, Lewis County
- Indian Mountain, 5014 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Johnny George Mountain, 4090 feet, Ferry County
- Jumpoff Lookout, 5670 feet, Yakima County
- Keller Butte, 4811 feet, Ferry County
- Kelly Butte, 5409 feet, King County
- Knowlton Knob, 3852 feet, Okanogan County
- Lookout Point (Lookout Mountain), 3114 feet, Spokane County
- Lookout Mountain, 5515 feet, Okanogan County
- Lookout Mountain, 5699 feet, Skagit County
- Lorena Butte Lookout, 2160 feet, Klickitat County
- Lynx Mountain, 5520 feet, Ferry County
- Meadow Butte, 3620 feet, Klickitat County
- Mebee Pass Lookout, 6960 feet, Okanogan/Skagit County
- Miners Ridge, 6208 feet, Snohomish County
- Monument 83 Lookout, 6520 feet, Okanogan County
- Moses Mountain, 6774 feet, Okanogan County
- Mount Adams: 12276 feet, Yakima County
- Mount Bonaparte, 7257 feet, Okanogan County
- Mount Constitution, 2407 feet, San Juan County
- Mount Fremont, 7181 feet, Pierce County
- Mount Leecher Crow’s Nest, 5000 feet, Okanogan County
- Mount Leecher, 5020 feet, Okanogan County
- Mount Pilchuck, 5324 feet, Snohomish County
- Mount Spokane, 5883 feet, Spokane County
- Alpine Lookout (Nason Ridge), 6235 feet, Chelan County
- Ned Hill, 3464 feet, Clallam County
- North Mountain, 3824 feet, Skagit County
- North Point, 3320 feet, Clallam County
- North Twentymile Peak, 7437 feet, Okanogan County
- Okanogan Post Office, 800 feet, Okanogan County
- Omak Mountain, 5747 feet, Okanogan County
- Oregon Butte, 6387 feet, Columbia County
- Park Butte, 5440 feet, Whatcom County
- Puyallup Ridge, 4877 feet, Pierce County
- Pyramid Mountain, 3100 feet, Clallam County
- Quartz Mountain, 5162 feet, Spokane County
- Red Mountain, 4965 feet, Skamania County
- Red Top Mountain, 5361 feet, Kittitas County
- Salmo Mountain, 6828 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Satus Peak, 4182 feet, Yakima County
- Shriner Peak, 5834 feet, Pierce County
- Signal Peak, 5100 feet, Yakima County
- Slate Peak, 7440 feet, Okanogan County
- Sourdough Mountain, 6120 feet, Whatcom County
- South Baldy, 5961 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Spokane Mountain, 3869 feet, Stevens County
- Steliko Point, 2586 feet, Chelan County
- Strawberry Mountain, 5863 feet, Okanogan County
- Sugarloaf Mountain, 5814 feet, Chelan County
- Sullivan Mountain, 6483 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Sun Top Mountain, 5271 feet, Pierce County
- Table Rock, 6250 feet, Columbia County
- Thorp Mountain, 5854 feet, Kittitas County
- Three Fingers, 6870 feet, Snohomish County
- Timber Mountain, 5474 feet, Pend Oreille County
- Tolmie Peak, 5939 feet, Pierce County
- Tower Mountain, 4000 feet, Stevens County
- Tunk Mountain, 6054 feet, Okanogan County
- Tyee Mountain, 6654 feet, Chelan County
- Watch Mountain, 4664 feet, Lewis County
- Wellpinit Mountain, 3464 feet, Stevens County
- Whitestone Ridge, 4762 feet, Ferry County
- Whitmore Mountain L-4 Cab, 3880 feet, Okanogan County
- Whitmore Mountain, 3949 feet, Okanogan County
- Winchester Mountain, 6521 feet, Whatcom County
