FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Bear Mountain Lookout

Also known as Bear Mountain (Beargrass Mountain)

Hike-in L-4 lookout in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, built in 1951 to replace earlier 1935 and 1922 structures and still staffed each summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Described as hike-in; no road access or rental mentioned.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab with catwalk on a 53-foot treated timber towerThe designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Wood
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
7,184 ft (2,190 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Clearwater National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.43111, −114.92472
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-bear-mountain

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. 1922 BuiltOriginal log cabin with crow's-nest built on the site; reportedly still presentSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1924 First staffedEarliest known staffing year listedSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1935 Replaced by a new structure45-foot pole tower with L-6 cab erected, replacing/supplementing the 1922 cabinSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1935 StaffedBud Moore and Owen Johnson staffed the lookout 1935-1938Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1935 and 1951
  6. 1951 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  7. 1951 Replaced by a new structureCurrent 53-foot L-4 timber tower built, replacing the 1935 pole towerSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1951 and 1982
  9. 1982 StaffedSteve Kalling staffed the lookout 1982-1983Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  10. No record between 1982 and 2005
  11. 2005 RestoredTower retrofitted to meet safety and engineering concerns after being closed about three years earlier; expected back in detection service.Source: firelookout.org
  12. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register April 24, 2009Source: nhlr.org
  13. 2019 RestoredRe-roofing project on the lookout, with the chapter supplying original hip-roof flashing.Source: firelookout.org
  14. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bear Mountain Lookout sits at 7,184 feet in the Clearwater National Forest in north-central Idaho.1,2 The site's fire-watch history goes back further than the current structure: a log cabin with a crow's-nest platform was built there in 1922, and that cabin reportedly still stands at the site today.1 In 1935 it was joined by a 45-foot pole tower carrying an L-6 cab.1,2

The building visitors see now dates to 1951: a 53-foot treated-timber tower topped by an L-4 cab with a catwalk, a design the National Historic Lookout Register calls a classic example of the type.1,2 It replaced the 1935 pole tower.1

Records of who staffed the lookout are thin but go back decades. Someone was posted there as early as 1924, and Bud Moore and Owen Johnson — both later written about in accounts of Fire Lookouts of the Northwest — staffed it through much of 1935 to 1938.3 Steve Kalling served in 1982–1983.3 Beyond those names, no source consulted gives a full staffing record or says when, if ever, the lookout stopped being used for fire detection.

Bear Mountain was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on April 24, 2009.1 It remains a working lookout today, listed as hike-in and staffed each summer by the Forest Service.2,3 Reaching it requires hiking in rather than driving to the door, consistent with its backcountry Clearwater National Forest setting. No source consulted mentions the tower being available for public rental.

  1. Bear Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/bear-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Bear Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/bearmtn291.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Bear Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/bear-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bear Mtn. in 1930
Bear Mtn. in 1930 (1930)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1936
Bear Mtn. in 1936 (1936)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in the 1940s
Bear Mtn. in the 1940s (1940)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1951
Bear Mtn. in 1951 (1951)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1952
Bear Mtn. in 1952 (1952)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1963
Bear Mtn. in 1963 (1963)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 2011
Bear Mtn. in 2011 (2011)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 2011
Bear Mtn. in 2011 (2011)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 2011
Bear Mtn. in 2011 (2011)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Montana Memory Project, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mountain Lookout
Bear Mountain 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.

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: 1951
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1922

    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, staffing, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.