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Fire lookout · Lemhi County, Idaho

Blue Nose Lookout

A 1934 two-story log-crib L-4 lookout on the Salmon-Challis National Forest, volunteer-maintained and open to public use, with staffing records dating back to 1920.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Drive-up, first-come first-served; road may be snowed in. No evidence found of a rental/reservation program.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive-up access; a June 2026 visit found the road still snowed in, requiring a short hike
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingTwo-story log-crib tower with L-4 cab and interior staircaseThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,677 ft (2,645 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lemhi County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.47266, −114.35851
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-blue-nose

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1920 StaffedW.S. Meade listed as lookout man, per Salmon Herald via Idaho Fire Lookouts' staff survey; likely refers to an earlier post on the site, predating the current 1934 structureSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1923 StaffedWill "Bill" Buster, per Salmon HeraldSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1924 StaffedMr. Dempsey, smokechaser, per The Idaho RecorderSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1934 BuiltTwo-story log-crib L-4 built as the first and only lookout on the siteSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1937 StaffedMr. & Mrs. Harvey Iverson and two children, per Montana Butte StandardSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1937 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 25, 2011 as US 930, nominated by Luke ChannerSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Blue Nose Lookout stands at 8,677 feet on the Salmon-Challis National Forest, in Lemhi County, Idaho.1 It was built in 1934 as a two-story log-crib tower topped with an L-4 cab, the first and only lookout ever put up on the site.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts calls the log-cribbed base with its interior staircase an "incredibly unique" design.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts' volunteer survey lists several people watching from Blue Nose years before the current tower existed: W.S. Meade in 1920, Will "Bill" Buster in 1923, a Mr. Dempsey working as smokechaser in 1924, and Harvey and his wife (with their two children) in 1937.3 The 1920s staffing presumably refers to an earlier lookout post on the same peak, since the standing structure itself dates to 1934; no source consulted explains what, if anything, preceded it.

Blue Nose was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 2011, registered as US 930, nominated by Luke Channer.1 It's maintained today by volunteers rather than staffed for fire detection, and firelookout.com describes it as open to public use.2 A visiting crew from Idaho Fire Lookouts in June 2026 found the road still snowed in, forcing them to park and hike the last stretch, and reported the tower itself looking rundown after a string of hard winters, with the log cribbing holding up but in need of maintenance.3

Access is by a drive-up road to a first-come, first-served approach, though conditions can vary with snowpack.3 Nothing in the sources consulted indicates Blue Nose is available as an overnight rental; it appears to function as a historic structure open for visitors to view and climb rather than a booked getaway.

  1. Blue Nose Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/blue-nose-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Blue Nose Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/bluenose.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Blue Nose Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/blue-nose-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Blue Nose Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Blue Nose Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout interior
Lookout interiorPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Blue Nose Lookout in 1949
Blue Nose Lookout in 1949 (1949)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Blue Nose L.O.
Blue Nose L.OPhoto: Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Blue Nose Lookout
Blue Nose LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, design, 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. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page 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
  5. 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
  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: 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, 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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