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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Atlasta Lookout Site

40-foot L-4 lookout built 1934 near Coolin; removed or destroyed in 1960; 1959 staff Bob Bond; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1960; the register says removed and the other sources say destroyed. No source describes a standing structure.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. On Kaniksu National Forest land. No source says the site is closed. None describes the site today.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site hike-in. No source gives a route.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1934
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
6,361 ft (1,939 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.42750, −116.71340
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-atlasta

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.0 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. 1934 Built40-foot pole L-4 tower built in 1934. All four sources agree.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1959
  3. 1959 StaffedMr. Bob Bond listed as known staff in 1959 on Idaho Fire Lookouts. A photo caption dates a Bob Bond photograph of the site to 1959-1960.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1960 DestroyedFirelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Weebly page say destroyed in 1960. The register says removed in 1960.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1960 and 1980
  6. 1980 EventRuins of the 48-foot patrol tower one mile southwest were still there in the 1980s. Register gives the decade only; 1980 marks the start of the decade, not a dated event.Source: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1980 and 2013
  8. 2013 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered February 20, 2013 as US 1540, ID 13.Source: firetower.org
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Atlasta lookout stood on Kaniksu National Forest land in Bonner County, about seven miles southeast of Coolin.1,2 Built in 1934, it was a 40-foot pole tower fitted with an L-4 cab.1,3,4 A 48-foot pole patrol tower with an L-6 cab stood about a mile to the southwest.2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Mr. Bob Bond as known staff in 1959, and a photo credit there dates a Bob Bond photograph of the site to 1959 and 1960.3

The sources disagree on how the lookout ended. Firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Idaho Forest Lookouts page on Weebly all say it was destroyed in 1960.2,3,4 The register says it was removed that year.1 The register also says the ruins of the patrol tower were still there in the 1980s.1

The register lists the site as registered on February 20, 2013, as US 1540, ID 13.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as a hike-in where the tower was destroyed.3 None of the four sources describes what, if anything, is left at the site today, or whether visitors can reach it.1,2,3,4

  1. Atlasta Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/atlasta-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Atlasta Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/atlasta.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Atlasta Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/atlasta-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Atlasta - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/atlasta.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: 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: dates, 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 LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.