REGIONS : ORIGIN SITE ~ North Central WA, RE-LO SITE ~ Unknown
Very little is known about the lookout atop 7152’ Milton Mountain, 12 miles west of Winthrop. Even less is known about its re-location. Apparently a fire lookout was staffed, possibly a camp, before the lookout tower was built in 1933. Newspaper entries contained in Ron Kemnow’s web site Washington lookouts.weebly.com read:
July 16, 1932: “George Haase resumed yesterday the position of fireman-lookout on Milton mountain, between the forks of Wolf creek. A cabin is to be erected at that station this summer, according to present plans.” (The Wenatchee Daily World)
August 15, 1932: “Houses for the lookout on Milton mountain, in the Wolf creek district, are also to be built. Work will probably be started on these projects in the near future.” (The Wenatchee Daily World)
September 2, 1933: “E.W. Allen and Jenks Boyer are building a standard lookout house, 14 by 14 feet and on the top of a 20 foot tower on Milton mountain. Material for the structure was packed up some time ago by Foss Creveling and George Miller.” (The Wenatchee Daily World)
The lookout was then removed in 1951. The Milton Mountain entry in Ray Kresek’s book Fire Lookouts of the Northwest, 3rd Edition includes “(sold for $1 high bid and removed by pack string in 1951). [Gone]” As no additional information has been found to date, several questions remain about this re-located lookout:
- Who bought the lookout?
- Where was it moved to?
- What was it to be used for?
- Was the move successful and is the L-5 cab still there?
Since so little is known about this re-location, the correct assignment of a re-location type is also unknown. I have listed the Milton Mountain move as a Type 2 Re-Location for now, assuming that it was purchased by a private individual and was moved to the buyer’s private property. This type assignment may be changed if more becomes known about the move.
Eric Willhite visited Milton Mountain in 2022. His trip report can be found on his web site www.willhiteweb.com. He reported that there was still a number of lookout artifacts remaining at the lookout site atop Milton Mountain.
Visit to the Re-Located Lookout Site
Cannot be scheduled at the time as the location is not known.
Our visit to Milton Mountain, the Origin Site
Peggy and I have not visited Milton Mountain. Eric Willhite lists the hiking distance as 10 miles one-way with a 5,000’ elevation gain.