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Fire lookout · Boise County, Idaho

Bald Mountain Lookout

Idaho Fire Lookouts marks this Bald Mountain tower destroyed in 1972, after a 1914 cabin. The record's Boise County, Boise NF and coordinates do not match that page.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Idaho Fire Lookouts marks it destroyed in 1972. No source describes the site now. The record's county, agency and coordinates do not match the page that gives this history.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Type unknown50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (by 1933)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1914
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Boise National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Boise County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.03350, −116.59406
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-bald-mountain-2

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.2 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. 1914 BuiltLog cabin with a crow's nestSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1923 AlteredObservation tower with a log cabinSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1933 Altered50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1972
  5. 1972 DestroyedMarked destroyed in 1972 by Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1972 and 1987
  7. 1987 StaffedReader comment on the page: a writer staffed a Bald Mountain lookout for the Idaho Dept. of Lands in 1987 or 1988 (the writer adds 'I think'). Conflicts with the 1972 date and is unverified.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 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.

The Idaho Fire Lookouts site files this Bald Mountain under its St. Joe-Clearwater region and marks the tower as destroyed in 1972.1

The site's history starts with a log cabin with a crow's nest, dated to 1914.1 By 1923 it had an observation tower with a log cabin, and by 1933 the tower was a 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1

The page says staffing for this lookout is not yet documented.1 A reader comment on the same page, however, says the commenter was a paid staffer at the Bald Mountain lookout for the Idaho Department of Lands in the summer of 1987 or 1988, though not sure of the date.1 That is years after the 1972 date.1 The comment is a personal recollection, and it has not been checked against records.1

No source I could read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, and none says whether visitors can reach it.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the rented Big Baldy lookout its own page, at 5,334 feet, against the 5,036 feet listed for this tower.2,1 The National Historic Lookout Register places a Bald Mountain lookout in Latah County, Idaho, whose 1960 tower was refurbished in 1998 and is on the Clearwater National Forest cabin rental program.3

  1. Bald Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/bald-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Bald Mountain Lookout (Big Baldy), Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/bald-mountain-lookout-big-baldy/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Bald Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, https://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/bald-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: name, location, status, 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
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: county, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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.