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Photograph of Suntop Lookout
Photograph by James McDonald, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Suntop Lookout

Built in 1933. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

From the record

“Suntop Lookout is located on Suntop Mountain in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in central Washington, USA. The fire lookout is at an elevation of about 5,270 feet (1,610 m) overlooking the valleys of the White River and Huckleberry Creek just to the north of Mount Rainier National Park.”

Wikipedia article Suntop Lookout, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 215 National Register listings published here for Pierce County · listed in 1987 · category: Structure · built in 1933.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. White River Ranger District on Suntop Mountain, 15 mi. NE of Mt. Rainier, Enumclaw, 98022
  • When was it listed? July 1987
  • Category. structure
  • Also known as. USDA Forest Service Fire Lookouts on Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest TR
  • Census division. Mount Rainier
  • When was it built? 1933
  • National Register reference number. 87001192 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

143 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 143 fires within 5 miles of Suntop Lookout between 1992 and 2020, burning about 81 acres in total. 31 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony75
Natural31
Missing data/not specified/undetermined15
Debris and open burning6
Smoking5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Arson/incendiarism3
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 1993Smokingunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forestnot named
6 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestCORRAL
6 September 2006Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestSMALL CHANGE
6 September 1992Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forestnot named
5 September 1998Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestCHARLEY
4 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestBURNS CREEK
4 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest28 CREEK
3 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMt. Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestAIRSTRIP

Every fire recorded in Pierce County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Suntop Lookout: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Buck Creek TraprockStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Pierce County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Huckleberry Creek Patrol Cabin3.4 miles1991
Silver Creek Ranger Station4.6 miles1991

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 87001192 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Pierce CountyAll 215 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.