SNOHOMISH COUNTY
THREE FINGERS
Mt Baker National Forest
31N-9E-17
31N-9E-17
1931: A 14 x 14 gable-roof lookout cabin was built.
October 1931: "Harold Holmes working on the Three Fingers Lookout trail on top of the world made a misstep while working on the edge of the Glacier and went rolling down over the bare blue ice for about 500 feet, landing in a little lake among the jagged rocks. And it was lucky that he struck the island of rocks as a few feet either way and he would be going yet. He was badly shaken up but a few days in the hospital fixed him up all right again. W.G. Weigle" (Six Twenty-Six)
March 16, 1938: "The strangest and most dangerous home in the world is surely that of Mrs. Catherine Eastwood, of East Washington, U.S.A. Mrs. Eastwood's husband is employed by the Forest Service as a lookout, and in this capacity he spends the summer months of the year in a lookout station on Three Fingers, one of the peaks of the Cascade Range. With him goes Mrs. Eastwood.
The lookout station is erected on a flat surface left when the Forest Service dynamited off the topmost peak. It has only one room, and all four walls consist mainly of glass (so that fires in the far-flung forests below can be quickly observed), with huge over-hanging eaves. The south wall is met by a drop of hundreds of feet, and the north side actually hangs over a sheer drop of 1000 feet. The front yard is a four foot ledge meeting the slope up which climbers ascend, while the back yard, a few yards square, has a foot-high railing to shelter it from a fall of half a mile.
The entire house is held down by cables, otherwise it would blow away in the high winds. Even so, the occupants can feel their home shifting when the gales are strong.
Visitors are an extremely rare event, though occasionally a mountain climber has called in.
On very clear days Mrs. Eastwood has seen mountain tops in British Columbia, nearly 200-miles away; and to the west she has sighted the Pacific Ocean rolling beyond Vancouver Island, a distance of 150 miles!" (Evening Post - Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington New Zealand - natlib.govt.nz/records/18917213)
The lookout station is erected on a flat surface left when the Forest Service dynamited off the topmost peak. It has only one room, and all four walls consist mainly of glass (so that fires in the far-flung forests below can be quickly observed), with huge over-hanging eaves. The south wall is met by a drop of hundreds of feet, and the north side actually hangs over a sheer drop of 1000 feet. The front yard is a four foot ledge meeting the slope up which climbers ascend, while the back yard, a few yards square, has a foot-high railing to shelter it from a fall of half a mile.
The entire house is held down by cables, otherwise it would blow away in the high winds. Even so, the occupants can feel their home shifting when the gales are strong.
Visitors are an extremely rare event, though occasionally a mountain climber has called in.
On very clear days Mrs. Eastwood has seen mountain tops in British Columbia, nearly 200-miles away; and to the west she has sighted the Pacific Ocean rolling beyond Vancouver Island, a distance of 150 miles!" (Evening Post - Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington New Zealand - natlib.govt.nz/records/18917213)
1942: After the fire season ended the lookout was closed, not to be staffed again.
2015: During the summer season a group of volunteers replaced the roof of the lookout cabin.
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The NGS Data Sheet
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STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1950 (WRH)
STATION IS ON THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE SOUTH FINGER OF THE THREE
FINGERS MOUNTAIN. IT IS LOCATED, AIRLINE, ABOUT 20 MILES EAST OF
ARLINGTON, 7 MILES SOUTH WEST OF DARRINGTON AND 1-1/2 MILES EAST OF
THE GOAT FLAT SHELTER HOUSE. IT IS THE HIGHEST POINT IN THE
VICINITY AND IS NOT VISIBLE FROM DARRINGTON.
STATION MARK, STAMPED THREE FINGERS 1950, IS A STANDARD DISK
CEMENTED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING BEDROCK. IT IS 14 INCHES
BELOW THE TOP OF THE OUTCROP AND 3 FEET HIGHER THAN THE FLOOR OF THE
LOOKOUT HOUSE.
REFERENCE MARK NUMBER 1, STAMPED THREE FINGERS NO 1 1950, IS A
STANDARD DISK CEMENTED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING BEDROCK THAT
PROJECTS 2 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AND IS 2 FEET LOWER IN ELEVATION
THAN THE STATION.
REFERENCE MARK NUMBER 2, STAMPED THREE FINGERS NO 2 1950, IS A
STANDARD DISK CEMENTED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING BEDROCK THAT
PROJECTS 8 INCHES ABOVE THE GROUND AND IS 10 INCHES LOWER IN
ELEVATION THAN THE STATION.
AZIMUTH MARK, STAMPED THREE FINGERS 1950, IS A STANDARD DISK
CEMENTED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING BEDROCK THAT PROJECTS 7
INCHES ABOVE THE GROUND. IT IS LOCATED ON THE TRAIL TO THE STATION
AT THE GOAT FLAT SHELTER HOUSE. IT IS 250 FEET NORTH OF THE SHELTER
HOUSE.
THREE FINGERS LOOKOUT HOUSE IS A WOODEN STRUCTURE 14 FEET SQUARE
AND 10 FEET IN HEIGHT. IT HAS A SLANTED ROOF WITH A SPIKE ON TOP
AND IN THE CENTER OF THE HOUSE.
THE STATION IS REACHED AS FOLLOWS--FROM THE U.S. POST OFFICE IN
DARRINGTON, GO NORTH AND WEST ON THE PAVED HIGHWAY TOWARDS ARLINGTON
FOR 08.1 MILES. TURN LEFT, SOUTH, ON A DIRT ROAD AS PER SIGN BOULDER
RIVER TRAIL 4 AND GO 3.5 MILES TO A DIM FORK. TURN RIGHT AND GO
0.5 MILE TO THE END AND A TURN AROUND AREA. FROM HERE FOLLOW THE
BOULDER RIVER TRAIL FOR 4 MILES TO THE RIVER CROSSING AND A SMALL
SHELTER HOUSE ON THE RIGHT. CROSS THE RIVER AND CONTINUE ON THE
SWITCH BACK TRAIL TO TUPSO PASS. TAKE THE LEFT FORK AND CONTINUE
ON THE MAIN TRAIL, FOLLOWING THE PHONE LINE AND SIGNS GOAT FLAT
TRAIL TO THE GOAT FLAT SHELTER HOUSE. THIS IS 8 MILES FROM THE
RIVER CROSSING. HORSES CAN BE TAKEN THE 12 MILES FROM THE ROAD TO
THE SHELTER HOUSE AND ABOUT 3/4 MILE ABOVE IF THE TRAIL IS CLEARED
BY THE FOREST SERVICE. AT THIS TIME IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO USE HORSES
DUE TO HIGH WATER AND UNCLEARED TRAIL. FROM THE SHELTER HOUSE
CONTINUE ON THE STEEP AND ROCKY TRAIL TO A PASS AT THE LEFT AND THE
OLD TRAIL UP THE HOGBACK RIDGE TO THE RIGHT. DO NOT FOLLOW THE OLD
TRAIL. SEVERAL ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES HAVE ACCURED ON THE OLD
TRAIL AND IT HAS BEEN CONDEMNED. LEAVE THE TRAIL AND GO NORTH OVER
THE PASS AND ON TO THE GLACIER, WHICH CAN ONLY BE TRAVERSED WITH
THE AIDE OF ICE CREEPERS AND PICKS, WITH THE LOSS OF ABOUT 500
FEET ELEVATION. THEN GO EAST AND SOUTH EAST, UP AND ACROSS THE
GLACIER, TO A NARROW PASS AND A ROCK SLIDE AND THE OLD TRAIL. FOLLOW
THE OLD TRAIL UP THE STEEP SLOPE, WHICH IS DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS,
TO THE BASE OF THE PEAK. FROM HERE THE LAST 200 YARDS IS MADE WITH
THE AIDE OF ROPES, LADDERS AND STEPS CUT IN THE STONE. THE ROPES AND
LADDERS ARE OLD AND SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED.
THIS IS 14 MILES BY TRAIL AND 1-1/2 DAYS SHOULD BE ALLOWED FOR THE
TRIP. CONTACT THE FOREST SERVICE RANGER AT DARRINGTON BEFORE MAKING
TRIP.
