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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Battle Creek Lookout

Also known as Battle Creek (ridge)

10-foot L-4 cab tower on the Battle Creek ridge, most sources date it to 1932; destroyed in 1951. No source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in 1951; no source describes what remains on the ridge

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in; no source describes access today

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 10-foot towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.21065, −114.68650 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-battle-creek

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. 1928 EventCamp recorded on the ridge (c.1928)Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1932 Built10-foot tower with L-4 cab. Other sources give 1934 (Idaho Fire Lookouts) or 1931 with a 20-foot tower (undated inventory quoted by Forest Lookouts)Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, fs.usda.gov
  3. No record between 1932 and 1951
  4. 1951 DestroyedStructure destroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1957 EventSite transferred from Bitterroot National Forest to Nez Perce National ForestSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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 lookout on Battle Creek ridge stood about 12 miles northeast of the Moose Creek Ranger Station, in the Nez Perce National Forest. A Forest Service list calls the spot Battle Ridge.1,2,3

A camp was recorded here around 1928.1,2

Sources disagree on when the tower went up. Most give a 10-foot tower with an L-4 cab in 1932.1,2,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts dates the same cab to 1934.4 One page, citing an undated inventory of Moose Creek Ranger District lookouts, describes a 20-foot tower and a 1931 build.2

The tower was destroyed in 1951.1,4,2,3

In 1957 the site was transferred from the Bitterroot National Forest to the Nez Perce National Forest.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in.4 No source we found describes what, if anything, remains on the ridge today.

  1. Battle Creek Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/battlecreek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Battle Creek (ridge), Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/battle-creek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Battle Creek Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/battle-creek-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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 location by 4.6 km (2.8 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.21065, −114.68650
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 46.21131, −114.62732

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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: 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, 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.