FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Arctic Point Lookout

Remote 1935/1936 Aermotor tower in Idaho's Frank Church Wilderness, unstaffed since 1997 and under long-term stabilization.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Reachable only by an 18-mile foot or horseback trail in designated wilderness; not open for rental or climbing.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
18-mile trail, foot or horseback only
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1997)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
81 ft (24.7 m)
Elevation
7,469 ft (2,277 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.47400, −115.03849 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-arctic-point

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.8 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1935 BuiltNHLR gives 1935 as the build year for the 72-foot Aermotor tower.Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1936 BuiltNRHP documentation (via Wikipedia) gives 1936 instead.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  3. 1939 AlteredRocky Mountain-style log cabin ground house added as lookout residence.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1939 and 1994
  5. 1994 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register of Historic Places.Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1997 AbandonedWikipedia/NRHP account: tower remained in service until 1997, when it was decommissioned; site unstaffed after this year.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  7. 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register.Source: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 1998 and 2013
  9. 2013 EventA bear damaged the ground cabin's porch logs, posts and decking while foraging for carpenter ants.Source: nhlr.org
  10. 2020 RestoredPayette National Forest staff, packers and volunteers completed an 11-day, ~100-mile trip to stabilize the cabin.Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2021 RestoredGround cabin restoration by the Forest Service is listed as a project.Source: firelookout.org
  12. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Arctic Point Lookout sits atop a 7,500-foot peak in Idaho's Payette National Forest, inside what is now the Frank Church Wilderness.1 The Forest Service put up a 72-foot Aermotor steel tower here, with a 7-by-7-foot cab on top, in either 1935 or 1936 — sources disagree, with the National Historic Lookout Register giving 1935 and the National Register of Historic Places documentation giving 1936.1,2 A Rocky Mountain-style log cabin was added at the base in 1939 to house the lookout staff.2,3

For most of its working life the tower served its ordinary purpose, spotting wildfires in one of the most remote corners of the Lower 48.1 During World War II, though, it also had an unusual job: watching for Japanese fire balloons, the hydrogen-filled incendiary devices Japan launched toward the Pacific Northwest between late 1944 and early 1945 in hopes the jet stream would carry them onto American forests.1 The lookout continued to be staffed into the 1990s; Idaho Fire Lookouts' known-staff list names Mike Taylor as the last recorded staffer, and the tower remained in service until 1997, when it was decommissioned.2,3

The tower earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and joined the National Historic Lookout Register in 1998.1,2 It survived the following decades with no major changes beyond a helipad, but by the 2010s the ground cabin needed real attention — a bear tore up its porch logs and decking in 2013, and the structure was showing its age.1 Because the site can only be reached by an 18-mile trail on foot or horseback, repairs have been slow going.1 Payette National Forest staff, along with volunteers and packers, have been running a multi-year stabilization effort, including an 11-day, roughly 100-mile pack trip in 2020 to shore up the cabin.1 In the 2020s the cabin has also been wrapped in protective material more than once as nearby wildfires approached.2

Arctic Point is not staffed and is not available to rent; it stands as a preserved historic structure deep in designated wilderness, reachable only by a long, difficult trail.

  1. Arctic Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/arctic-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Arctic Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/arctic-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Arctic Point Fire Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Point_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

2016
2016 (2016)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Arctic Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Arctic Point Lookout
Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Observer's cabin
Observer's cabinPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Observer's cabin
Observer's cabinPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1936 - Emmit Routson with his pack train bringing the lookout tower parts to the remote area when it was first constructed
1936 - Emmit Routson with his pack train bringing the lookout tower parts to the remote area when it was first constructed (1936)Photo: Payette National Forest, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Residence cabin during 2020 stabilization work
Residence cabin during 2020 stabilization work (2020)Photo: Payette National Forest, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2020
2020 (2020)Photo: Payette National Forest, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Arctic Point in 2007
Arctic Point in 2007 (2007)Photo: Richard Holm, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Arctic Point Lookout
Photo: USFS, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · source
Arctic Point Lookout
Arctic Point LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 590 m.

    • NHLR: 45.47400, −115.03849
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 45.47167, −115.04528

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, photos, links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: photos, links idahofirelookouts.com · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, status/built/destroyed year parsed from each entry's short excerpt). Thumbnail photos mirrored with credit per the project's photo policy. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: height, register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  9. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.