FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Binarch Mountain Lookout

1920s 40-foot pole tower; 1934 80-foot Aermotor tower moved to Newport Hill in 1959. The Newport Hill page lists its own 40-foot Aermotor tower (developed 1938) and its 1959 cabin as removed. No source describes the original site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower dismantled and moved to Newport Hill in 1959. The Newport Hill page lists its 40-foot tower and 1959 cabin as removed. No source describes what remains at the original 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 Kaniksu National Forest land; no source mentions a closure.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with 7x7 cab (1920s), replaced in 1934 by an 80-foot Aermotor MC-40 steel tower with 7x7 cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1920
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.50482, −116.95498
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-binarch-mountain

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. 1920 Built40-foot pole tower with 7x7 cab and a cabin with living quarters (1920s; exact year not given)Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1930 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Sutliff, per Idaho Fire Lookouts (USFS photo collection)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1931 StaffedJim Parr, per Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1934 Replaced by a new structure80-foot Aermotor MC-40 steel tower with 7x7 cab and another cabin replaced the pole towerSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  5. 1934 StaffedAl Bennett, per Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1944 StaffedPhil McVay for 1944 to 1946, per Idaho Fire Lookouts; the same page also lists Robert L McVey for that period (Closed Season)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1952 StaffedRalph Jaszowski, per Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1955 EventTower still standing in 1955 per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  9. 1959 MovedTower dismantled and moved to Newport Hill. The Newport Hill page does not mention Binarch; it dates its 40-foot Aermotor tower to 1938 and its cabin living quarters to 1959.Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Binarch Mountain is a lookout site in the Kaniksu National Forest, at about 4,170 feet.1 The first lookout, built in the 1920s, was a 40-foot pole tower with a cab and a cabin for living quarters.2,3 Forest Lookouts describes the cab as open, while Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com describe a 7x7 cab.2,1,3

In 1934 the pole tower was replaced by an 80-foot steel Aermotor tower with a 7x7 cab, and another cabin went up with it.2,1,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists known staff from 1930 to 1952: Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff in 1930, Jim Parr in 1931, Al Bennett in 1934, Phil McVay for 1944 to 1946, and Ralph Jaszowski in 1952.1 The same page also lists a Robert L McVey for the 1944 to 1946 period, so it is unclear whether that name is spelled McVay or McVey.1

In 1959 the tower was dismantled and moved to Newport Hill.2,1 Firelookout.com says the tower was still there in 1955 and has since been removed.3 Newport Hill's own page says the site was developed in 1938 with a crow's nest, a tent cabin and a 40-foot Aermotor steel tower. It says the tower and the cabin living quarters, built in 1959, have since been removed.4 The Binarch pages describe the tower moved in 1959 as 80 feet, while the Newport Hill page describes a 40-foot tower from 1938, so the sources do not say what was moved there.2,4

Today, Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the Binarch site as a hike-in.1 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the original site, and the Newport Hill tower is also listed as removed.4

  1. Binarch Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/binarch-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Binarch Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/binarch-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Binarch Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/binarch.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Newport Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/id/newporthill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Binarch Mountain Lookout
Binarch 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.

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: what it is built of, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.