Copper Mountain Fire Lookout

Built in 1934. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

From the record

“The Copper Mountain Fire Lookout was built in 1934 in what was then the Glacier Ranger district of Mount Baker National Forest. The cabin-like wood frame lookout is a frame cabin with large windows on each side protected by an awning-style shutter.”
Wikipedia article Copper Mountain Fire Lookout, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 74 National Register listings published here for Whatcom County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · built in 1934, by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/fae7c7a42c1648fa11b5d0203aaf62e9.

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 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. On Copper Mountain, 10 mi. E of Hannegan Campground, Newhalem
When was it listed? February 1989
Category. building
Also known as. North Cascades National Park Service Complex MRA
Census division. East Whatcom
When was it built? 1934
Architect. http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/fae7c7a42c1648fa11b5d0203aaf62e9
National Register reference number. 88003446 - 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

9 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Copper Mountain Fire Lookout between 1997 and 2019, burning about 732 acres in total. 7 started naturally. None was 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
Natural	7
Recreation and ceremony	2

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	SILESIA CREEK
5 September 2013	Natural	1.0 acres	North Cascades National Park	COPPER MOUNTAIN
3 August 2009	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	EASY
27 August 2009	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	COPPER RIDGE
26 August 2013	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	INDIAN CREEK CAMP
2 August 2009	Natural	304 acres	North Cascades National Park	BRUSH CREEK
18 August 1997	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	COPPERRDGE
17 August 2018	Natural	426 acres	North Cascades National Park	LITTLE FORK

Every fire recorded in Whatcom County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Copper Mountain Fire Lookout: 4 prospects, 2 occurrences, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Gold, Sulfur-Pyrite, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Hannegan Pass Claims	Gold, Silver	Prospect
Ruth Mountain Pyrite Prospect	Sulfur-Pyrite, Gold	Prospect
Hannegan Pass Group	Silver, Gold	Occurrence	Pyrite
Ruth Mountain Pyrite Prospect	Silver, Gold	Occurrence	Pyrite
Packsaddle Placer Claims	Gold	Prospect
Pierce Prospect	Gold	Past Producer	1889
Pierce Prospect	Gold	Prospect

Every working recorded in Whatcom 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

1 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	International Boundary US-Canada	6.9 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88003446 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Whatcom County	All 74 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.