Sugarloaf Lookout Still Standing Proudly As Namesake Fire Dies Out

After a very close call with the raging flames of the Lower Sugarloaf Fire last month, the historic Sugarloaf Lookout has emerged unscathed and is still proudly standing.

The lookout was erected in 1914 on the Wenatchee River Ranger District within the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and is one of the oldest lookout posts in Washington State.

In early September, just days after the Lower Sugarloaf Fire was sparked by a lighting strike and quickly grew to over 8,000 acres, its flames roared to within only 1,000 feet of the 111-year-old structure.

Thankfully, crews had worked feverishly to wrap the lookout in fire-resistant material and further protect it by installing a sprinkler system less than 48 hours prior to the wildfire's close approach.

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Now, over a month later, those measures to safeguard the legendary site have paid off, as the Lower Sugarloaf Fire has reached its dying stages and is currently listed at 90% containment.

The flames of the blaze actually burned through the area where the lookout is located weeks ago, but officials have only decided just this week to give the all-clear and declare the beloved observation post as safe from any further danger.

Firefighters have removed the protective silver wrapping and disassembled the sprinkler system surrounding the lookout in recent weeks, as life in the tranquility of the wilderness of the Wenatchee River Ranger District begins to return to normal for the century-plus-old post.

This year's brush with oblivion isn't the first due to a wildfire in the lookout's lengthy history either.

In 1970, it survived the 120,000-acre Entiat Fire, and also remained standing following the 180,000-acre Tyee-Hatchery Fire of 1994, and the Cougar Creek Fire, which torched over 40,000 acres just seven years ago.

Although the famous lookout has seen several updates throughout its 11 decades on the landscape, its bones are essentially the same today as they have been for the past 77 years.

The structure was originally utilized as a heliograph - a camp equipped with fire detection instruments that were mounted on the basalt columns of Sugarloaf Mountain. Ten years later, in 1924, a cupola style structure was erected on the site; and finally - over two decades after that, in 1948, the cabin which is currently seated on the rise within the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest was moved there from Lion Rock in Kittitas County.

Thanks to the salty labors of the wildland firefighters assigned to the Lower Sugarloaf and a pinch of modern technology they had at their disposal, the Sugarloaf Lookout will be standing tall to humbly await eager visitors as a new season emerges in the National Forest next spring.