FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Big Rock (62)

Tent camp from 1908, a 1921 pole tower and a 1932 45-foot L-6 cab tower; destroyed in the 1940s or 1950s (sources differ). No source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lookout structure destroyed in the 1940s or 1950s (sources differ). No source describes what remains at the site now.

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. Listed as a hike-in site on Nez Perce National Forest land; no source mentions a closure.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot round pole tower with 7x7 cab (1921), replaced in 1932 by a 45-foot round pole tower with L-6 cabThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1921
Height
45 ft (13.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.20653, −115.04130
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-big-rock-62

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 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. 1908 EventTent camp with a ladder up the rock and an alidade on top (Forest Lookouts); firelookout.com lists a log cabin for this year insteadSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1914 First staffedAl Peterson and Ed Gilroy stationed as smokechaser and lookout, per a 1981 account quoted by Forest Lookouts; Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Gilroy under 1915Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1921 Built30-foot round pole tower with 7x7 cab about 1.5 miles south of the rock; original site abandonedSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  4. 1932 Replaced by a new structure45-foot round pole tower with L-6 cab replaced the earlier tower (firelookout.com dates it with a question mark)Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  5. 1940 DestroyedL-6 tower destroyed in the 1940s per Idaho Fire Lookouts (decade only)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1950 DestroyedLookout structure destroyed in the 1950s per Forest Lookouts and firelookout.com (decade only)Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  7. 1956 EventCoast and Geodetic Survey recovery note: a lookout house was observed from a low-flying aircraft and appeared to be in its original positionSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1957 RemovedDifferent tower: High Springs, about 1.5 miles south, was blown down with dynamite. Not the Big Rock structure itself.Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, fs.usda.gov
  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.

Big Rock (62) is a lookout site in the Nez Perce National Forest at about 7,100 feet.1 Forest Lookouts says the site began in 1908 as a tent camp with a ladder up a large rock and an alidade (a sighting instrument) on top.2 Firelookout.com lists a log cabin for that year instead.3

Staffing began early.2,1 A 1981 account by Louis Hartig, quoted by Forest Lookouts, says Al Peterson and Ed Gilroy were posted there as smokechaser and lookout in 1914. Gilroy believed it was the first lookout on the Fish Lake District to be staffed on a regular basis.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Peterson under 1914 and Gilroy under 1915.1

The lookout moved and changed over the next two decades.2,3 In 1921 a 30-foot pole tower with a 7x7 cab went up about a mile and a half south of the rock, and the original site was abandoned.2 In 1932 a 45-foot pole tower with an L-6 cab replaced the earlier one.2,1

The sources disagree on when the tower was lost.2,1,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts dates the destruction of the L-6 tower to the 1940s.1 Forest Lookouts and firelookout.com say the structure was destroyed in the 1950s.2,3 A 1956 survey note says a lookout house was seen from a low-flying aircraft and appeared to be in its original position, which does not fit neatly with either date.2

Forest Lookouts also quotes the 1981 account saying a later tower, High Springs, was built about a mile and a half south and that Big Rock was then abandoned.2 A separate High Springs page says that tower replaced Big Rock 62 in 1921 and was blown down with dynamite in 1957.4 The Nez Perce National Forest history gives the same 1957 date for High Springs.5 The sources do not line up on which tower stood where.2,4

Today, Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in, but none of these sources describes what, if anything, remains at the site now.1

  1. Big Rock (62) Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/big-rock-62-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Big Rock (62) - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/big-rock-62.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Big Rock (62) Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/bigrock62.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. High Spring - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/high-spring.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. History of Forest Fire Lookouts on the Nez Perce National Forest, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259214 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Big Rock (62) Lookout
Big Rock (62) 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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