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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Bad Luck Point Lookout

L-4 cab on a 20 ft pole tower, Bitterroot NF; built 1939 (one source says 1938), gone by about 1980; a 2018 report finds only a few concrete blocks.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower gone by about 1980 (one history says c.1983). A 2018 report says only a few concrete blocks remain.

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. Forest Service land inside the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; nothing stands to climb

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
A 2018 report describes a 2.5-mile climb to the summit from a trailhead across from the Work Center's upper access road, with no water on the route.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 20-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1939
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Bitterroot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.88807, −114.72243
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-bad-luck-point

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 3.7 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. 1939 BuiltL-4 cab on a 20-foot pole tower. firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the PNW SOTA report give 1939; Weebly gives 1938.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, pnwsota.org
  2. No record between 1939 and 1955
  3. 1955 StaffedWilliam Moen, partial season (also spent time on Mt. George that year)Source: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1955 and 1971
  5. 1971 ClosedA 1971 Ravalli Republic item, quoted on Weebly, says the Bitter Root Forest closed the lookout. firelookout.com lists 1971 as not staffed.Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1974 StaffedLinda Ambelang listed for 1974-1975; the 1975 item calls it her second summerSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1976 StaffedAlexia Cochrane, listed only by Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1980 RemovedGone by about 1980 (firelookout.com; Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1980; PNW SOTA says till about 1980). Weebly gives c.1983.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, pnwsota.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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bad Luck Point is a former Forest Service lookout in the Bitterroot National Forest. It sits on the edge of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, about 13 miles north of the Magruder Ranger Station.1

The lookout was an L-4 cab on a 20-foot pole tower, built in 1939.1,2 One lookout history gives 1938 instead.3

Staff lists name observers in 1955 and in many years from 1959 to 1976.1,2 The first name is William Moen, who worked part of the 1955 season and was also on Mt. George that year.1 Linda Ambelang was listed in 1974 and 1975, and a 1975 newspaper item quoted by one history says this was her second season there.1,3 Alexia Cochrane is the last name listed, for 1976.2

A 1971 newspaper item, also quoted by one history, says the Bitterroot forest had closed the lookout that year.3 The staff list shows it unstaffed in 1971 and names observers again from 1974.1

The lookout was gone by about 1980.1,2,4 One history gives a later date, c.1983, for its removal.3

A 2018 amateur-radio activation report says the summit is now largely wooded, with only a handful of concrete blocks left.4 The road runs out at Paradise Work Center, deep in the wilderness, and the trailhead sits across from the Work Center's upper access road.4 It is a long climb of about 2.5 miles to the summit, with no water on the way.4 Nothing stands at the site to climb.4 We found no other description of the site today.

  1. Bad Luck Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/badluck.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Bad Luck Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/bad-luck-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Bad Luck Point - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/bad-luck-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho - Bad Luck Mountain 23June2018, PNW SOTA, https://www.pnwsota.org/activation-reports/k7vk/2025-10-01/idaho-bad-luck-mountain-23june2018 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Bad Luck Point Lookout
Bad Luck Point LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, agency, ownership, 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
  5. 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

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