FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Black Mountain Lookout (now at Black Mountain Ridge)

Also known as Black Mountain Ridge

Boundary County, ID lookout tower first built 1963 at Faset Peak, moved to Black Mountain in 1975, and moved again about half a mile in 2019; it is not yet open to the public.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Not open to the public; Campflare lists it as not available for rental and says restoration is needed before it can open through the recreation rental program.

Original site: Black Mountain Lookout (Boundary County)

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1997)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower53-foot open timber tower with a Region 6 flat-top cab; at Black Mountain since 1975 and moved about half a mile in 2019The design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1921
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Idaho Panhandle National Forests (Kaniksu); the Idaho Department of Lands administered the site earlier
Land
Unknown
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.61354, −116.24767
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-black-mountain-at-black-mountain-ridge

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 4.2 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. 1921 BuiltFirst lookout on Black Mountain: an elevated cabin on a short open timber tower (original site)Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1935 Replaced by a new structureOriginal cabin replaced by a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab (original site)Source: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1935 and 1963
  4. 1963 Built53-foot timber tower with Region 6 flat-top cab constructed at Faset PeakSource: nhlr.org
  5. 1975 MovedTower moved from Faset Peak to Black Mountain; a 1975 newspaper note records the August moveSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1975 and 1997
  7. 1997 Last staffedLast staffed by the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. No record between 1997 and 2019
  9. 2019 MovedTower moved about half a mile east-northeast of the original site, with a plan to add it to the recreation rental programSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, bchistoricplaces.org
  10. 2019 RestoredChapter supplied materials for refurbishing the relocated lookoutSource: firelookout.org
  11. 2025 EventWork party scheduled July 20 to 22, 2025 for a pit toilet modeled on the historic outhouse and general maintenanceSource: bchistoricplaces.org
  12. Date unknown MovedMoved from Black Mountain to Black Mountain Ridge.Source: FFLA
  13. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Black Mountain's first lookout was a cabin on a short open timber tower, built in 1921.1 In 1935 it was replaced by a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1 The tower that stands today is a 53-foot timber tower with a Region 6 flat-top cab, first built at Faset Peak in 1963.1

The register says the tower moved to Black Mountain in 1975.1 A 1975 Bonners Ferry Herald note, as quoted by Idaho Fire Lookouts, describes the move to the new tower in August, but that site's timeline dates it to 1976.2

The Idaho Department of Lands administered the site, and the lookout was last staffed by the department in 1997.1,2 The register notes that the lookout survived vandal damage to its tower legs.1

In 2019 the tower was moved about half a mile east-northeast of its original site.1,2 The Forest Service took it apart and rebuilt it at a new site, after communication towers and electronic equipment had built up around the old one.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's northern Idaho and Montana chapter supplied materials to refurbish the relocated lookout that year.4

The Boundary County historic group calls the tower complete and says it is awaiting inclusion in the Forest Service recreation rental program.3 Campflare, however, lists it as not currently available for rental and says it needs restoration work before it can open to the public through the rental program.5 A work party was scheduled for July 20 to 22, 2025, to build a pit toilet modeled on the historic outhouse and do general maintenance.3 The tower stands, but it is not open to visitors yet, and the sources disagree about how much work remains.3,5

  1. Black Mountain Lookout (Boundary County), National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://www.nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/black-mountain-lookout-boundary-county/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Black Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/black-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Black Mountain Lookout Construction Project, Boundary County Historic Places, https://www.bchistoricplaces.org/event-details/black-mountain-lookout-construction-project (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. 2019 North Idaho/Montana chapter annual report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-id-n-mt-2019.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Black Mountain Lookout Campground, Campflare, https://campflare.com/campground/black-mountain-lookout-214 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.