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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Austin Ridge Lookout

A 1960 R-6 cab on a 53-foot timber tower in the Clearwater National Forest, replacing a 1932 pole lookout; standing, with sources disagreeing on current use.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. First-come, first-served per a July 2023 visit report; the register lists it as inactive.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower15-by-15-foot R-6 cab with catwalk on a 53-foot treated timber towerThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
4,731 ft (1,442 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Clearwater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.35074, −115.67097
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-austin-ridge

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 4.3 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. 1932 BuiltFirst lookout: a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1951
  3. 1951 DestroyedOriginal lookout destroyed in a windstorm, per the Forest Service listSource: fs.usda.gov
  4. 1960 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1960 Replaced by a new structureCurrent 15-by-15-foot R-6 cab on a 53-foot timber towerSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 1977
  7. 1977 StaffedNancy Beseman listed as staff for 1977-1978Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1981 StaffedCarol Petty listed as staff for 1981-1982Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 1990 Opened as a rentalPut on emergency staffing, then added to the rental program, in the 1990s; 1990 is a placeholder for that decadeSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 1990 Last staffedStaffed until the early 1990s per the register; 1990 is a placeholder for that periodSource: nhlr.org
  11. No record between 1990 and 2011
  12. 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 18, 2011 as US 938, ID 97Source: nhlr.org
  13. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Austin Ridge Lookout stands in the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho County, Idaho, at about 4,731 feet (1,442 meters).1,2 The first lookout on the ridge was a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, built in 1932.3 A windstorm destroyed that original in 1951, according to a Forest Service list.4 In 1960 it was replaced by the tower that stands today: a 53-foot treated timber tower topped by a 15-by-15-foot R-6 cab with a catwalk.1,2

The register says staffing ended in the early 1990s.1 A history site names a few of the people who worked it, including John Opresik in the 1930s, Nancy Beseman in the late 1970s and Carol Petty in the early 1980s.2 In the 1990s the tower went on emergency staffing and then into the rental program.2 The July 2023 visit report also shares a memory of competitive training from the tower: teams of firefighters spotted a smoke that management had ignited, located it, and raced to reach it.2

Sources disagree on how the tower is used now.1,2,4 A Forest Service list from June 2016 says it was on standby.4 The register says it is now inactive.1 The 2023 visit report says it has left the rental program and now runs first-come, first-served, and it files the site under drive-up.2 The 2023 account is the most recent in the sources, but check with the Clearwater National Forest before going.

  1. Austin Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/austin-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Austin Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/austin-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Austin Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/austinridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Austin Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Austin Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Austin Ridge in 1997
Austin Ridge in 1997 (1997)Photo: Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Austin Ridge Lookout
Austin Ridge LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1960
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1932

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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: design, height, 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 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
  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.