FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Basin Butte Lookout

A 14x14 ft L-4 cab near Stanley, Idaho, out of active staffing since 1989 and reported restored in 2008; build year (1933/1934) and restoration status are disputed.

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. Idaho Fire Lookouts labels it 'Drive-Up Emergency' and the sources describe emergency status since 1989; no source says whether visitors or renters are allowed today.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2021)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cab14x14 ft L-4 cab with catwalk (catwalk added 1937); Idaho Heritage Trust calls it an R4-80 standard plan lookoutThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,854 ft (2,699 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Salmon-Challis National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.33823, −114.97785
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-basin-butte

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 4.1 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. 1929 EventCamp recorded on the site (Idaho Fire Lookouts timeline)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1934 Built14x14 ft L-4 cab. Three sources say 1934; firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts say 1933; Keeping Watch says 1933 or 1934Sources: nhlr.org, idahoheritagetrust.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 AlteredCatwalk with native pole handrails addedSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1937 and 1989
  5. 1989 EventRemoved from the active staffing list and set to emergency status; the sources give no last staffing seasonSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1989 and 2008
  7. 2008 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 20, 2008 as NHLR US 747Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2008 EventFFLA restoration grant of $500 toward a new lightning protection system on an estimated $8,000 project, with added funds from the Southern Idaho Chapter.Source: firelookout.org
  9. 2008 RestoredVolunteer Passport in Time restoration by the Forest Service. NHLR and Idaho Fire Lookouts say completed; Forest Lookouts says begun, with rental use planned after completionSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  10. 2012 FireFire crew wrapped the structure as the Halstead fire advanced (August 13, 2012)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  11. 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.

Basin Butte Lookout sits in the Salmon River Mountains, about eight miles north of Stanley, Idaho, on the Salmon-Challis National Forest.1,2 The site is at about 8,854 feet, and one guide puts the distance from Stanley at nine miles.1,3,4 The cabin is a 14-by-14-foot L-4 design, the early prefabricated live-in style.1,5 Three sources give 1934 as the year it was built.1,2,6 Two others give 1933, and Keeping Watch lists either year.3,4,5 The Heritage Trust also calls it an R4-80 standard plan lookout.2

The Idaho Fire Lookouts timeline records a camp on the site in 1929.3 According to the Heritage Trust, the lookout protected the Stanley Basin and the Salmon River Mountains until airplanes took over fire detection from lookouts, after which it fell out of use.2 A catwalk with pole handrails went on in 1937.6 In 1989 the building came off the active staffing list, and the Idaho Fire Lookouts timeline says it was set to emergency status that year.3,6 Keeping Watch's record says it is no longer staffed.5

In August 2012, as the Halstead fire advanced, a fire crew wrapped the structure.6

The National Historic Lookout Register recorded the lookout on November 20, 2008, and says a volunteer Passport in Time project by the Forest Service restored it that same year.1,3 The Forest Lookouts page disagrees about the restoration. It says work had only begun in 2008 and that the finished building would go into the rental program.6 The sources do not settle whether the restoration was finished that year.1,3,6

The Heritage Trust says a replacement planned for the late 1970s never happened, and that the cabin is largely unchanged since construction.2 A 2021 Keeping Watch video shows a stripped interior, and the site is recorded there as abandoned.5 The Idaho Fire Lookouts guide files it under drive-up emergency status.3

None of the sources here says whether the lookout can be rented or visited right now.1,2,3,4,5,6 Check with the Salmon-Challis National Forest before planning a trip, and do not enter the building unless the Forest Service says it is open.

  1. Basin Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/basin-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Basin Butte Lookout, Idaho Heritage Trust, https://www.idahoheritagetrust.org/projects-grants/basin-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Basin Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/basin-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Basin Butte Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/basinbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Basin Butte Lookout, Keeping Watch, Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning, https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/items/basin-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Basin Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/basin-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Basin Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1932 photo
1932 photo (1932)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Basin Butte in 1998
Basin Butte in 1998 (1998)Photo: Jim Reid & PJ Smith, and Jill Osborn, via firelookout.com · source
Basin Butte L.O.
Basin Butte L.OPhoto: Jim Reid & PJ Smith, and Jill Osborn, via firelookout.com · source
Basin Butte Lookout
Basin Butte 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.

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. 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.