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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Blacktail Mountain Lookout

Bonner County lookout on the Kaniksu National Forest: a 10-foot L-4 tower built in 1932 was destroyed in 1941. Its alidade table and a carved inscription remain on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower was destroyed in 1941. The alidade table and a carved inscription remain on the summit.

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 10-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.72250, −116.93826
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-blacktail-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 4.3 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. 1932 Built10-foot pole tower with a gabled L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 StaffedIvan Painter is listed for 1934; the writers say they believe he was one of the first lookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1936 StaffedBill Stobie is listed for June 25 to Sept 1, 1936Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1941 DestroyedFirelookout.com calls the loss abruptSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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.

Blacktail Mountain sits in Bonner County, Idaho, about six miles north of Nordman, in the Kaniksu National Forest. The site stands at 5,495 feet.1,2

A lookout went up there in 1932: a 10-foot pole tower topped by a gabled, L-4 style cab.1,3 A patrol point stood about half a mile northwest of it.1

Two men are named for the tower.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Ivan Painter for 1934. The writers say they believe he was an early lookout on the mountain, based on an old photograph.2 The same site lists Bill Stobie for 1936, and the writers say he was "obviously the lookout staffed here June 25 to Sept 1, 1936." They could not find out more about him.2,4

Firelookout.com says the tower was abruptly destroyed in 1941.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts and Forest Lookouts give the same year.2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the site as a tower that is gone.5

Some of the site survives. Idaho Fire Lookouts reports that the original alidade, a sighting table once used to watch for wildfires, still stands on the summit. An inscription with Stobie's name and dates is carved into the rock nearby.4 The writers describe the view over Upper and Lower Priest Lake as "truly an incredible view," and say the alidade stands "solid and tall," overlooking the two lakes.2 The site is listed as hike-in, and the writers describe going up there.2 None of the sources mention a closure or a permit, but none says whether the site is open to visitors today. Check with the Kaniksu National Forest before you go.

  1. Blacktail Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/blacktail.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Blacktail Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/blacktail-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Blacktail Mountain, Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/blacktail-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookout Staffing Project, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/lookout-adventures/idaho-lookout-staffing-project/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Blacktail Mountain Lookout
Blacktail Mountain 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, 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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