[1] The fire was started by multiple lightning strikes associated with a dry thunderstorm drifting northeast across the Colville National Forest[1] on August 23.

[5] The overnight passage ignited six different fires in the upper reaches of the Hall Creek drainage basin, southwest of Sherman Pass.

Control of the fires was first attempted by smokejumpers based out of Winthrop, Washington, with forest service ground crews drawn from the Kettle Falls and Republic stations.

[7][1] The fire growth over the next 24 hours took its size up to 12,500 acres (5,100 ha) and management officials deemed the complex too intergrown to treat as separate blazes.

As such they renamed the whole group the White Mountain Complex, and the fires were intense enough to send both smoke and ash over Republic.

Firecrews working on firelines had extended containment around approximately 45% of the complex and in doing so removed the imminent possibility of Republic being evacuated.

[8] By September 15 the White Mountain, south 17 and two other fires in the area were all contained and crews were performing "clean up operations" on the burns[10] aided by fall weather conditions.

The fires cleared large areas of canopy allowing for stands consisting of numerous saplings and scattered mature adults to emerge by 1995.

[12] The White Mountain Fire impacted a region of Washington State's second-largest lynx management zone, which encompasses a large portion of the Kettle River Range.

However, post-fire timber harvesting and the planting of non-native grasses in the burned areas changes the forest ecology and habitat type.

[14] Turning south, the trail joins the 28 mi (45 km) long hike to White Mountain via the Kettle Crest.

A paved 0.25 mi (0.40 km) loop trail passes by the overlook which has interpretive signage about the vista east towards Paradise Peak, Graves Mountain, and the various fire-formed landscapes in the Upper Sherman Creek Valley.

The site includes interpretive signage about the effects of the fire on the western slopes of the Kettle River Range and has a fully paved 0.25 mi (0.40 km) trail.