Desolation Peak Lookout

Built in 1932. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

From the record

One of 74 National Register listings published here for Whatcom County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · built in 1932, by United States Forest Service.

Sources: 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 Desolation Peak E of Ross Lake, 6 mi. S of Canadian border, Hozomeen
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? 1932
Architect. United States Forest Service
National Register reference number. 88003451 - 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

25 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Desolation Peak Lookout between 1992 and 2013, burning about 326 acres in total. 17 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	17
Recreation and ceremony	7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

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
22 September 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	DESO TRAIL
9 August 1997	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	LITTLE J
4 August 1999	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	JACK POINT
4 August 1999	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	LITTLEJACK
28 August 1999	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	LIGHTNING
27 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	STARVATION
26 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	JACKSADDLE
24 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	JACKASS

Every fire 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

4 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Deer Lick Cabin	1.8 miles	1989
International Boundary US-Canada	5.5 miles	1989
Fish and Game-Hozomeen Cabin	5.7 miles	1989
Perry Creek Shelter	6.4 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88003451 in Record Group 79.
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.