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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Bluebird Point Lookout

St. Joe NF ground lookout: used as a camp around 1925, L-4 cab in the 1930s, first manned 1929 by William Guntermann, destroyed 1969; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1969; the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as ground and gone.

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?
Unknown
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in; the cab was destroyed in 1969

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab east of the crestThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.29863, −115.62758
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-bluebird-point

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1925 EventUsed as a camp, c.1925 (firelookout.com '1925: camp'; Forest Lookouts 'c.1925: camp'; Idaho Fire Lookouts '1925 - Camp').Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1929 First staffedWilliam F. Guntermann was stationed there when it was first manned (npshistory editor's note); his July 2, 1929 letter is headed Bird Creek Lookout. Idaho Fire Lookouts also names him for 1929.Sources: npshistory.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1930 StaffedDave Brown, per Idaho Fire Lookouts, which cites the source Swiftwater People; no other source read.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1930 and 1969
  5. 1969 DestroyedDestroyed in 1969 per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 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.

Bluebird Point is a former lookout site in the St. Joe National Forest, in Shoshone County, Idaho.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives its elevation as 5,416 feet.3

The point was used as a camp around 1925.1,3,4 An L-4 cab later stood east of the crest, but the sources give only the decade.1,4 A patrol point stood two miles north, atop Gray's Peak.1,3

The station was first manned in 1929, when William F. Guntermann was posted there.5 His July 1929 letter describes a tent pitched right on the peak and furniture made from split logs.5

Idaho Fire Lookouts names Dave Brown as the keeper in 1930 and cites the source Swiftwater People for it.3

The station has had more than one name.3,5 Idaho Fire Lookouts says it was once called Bird Peak, and the 1929 letters call it Bird Point and Bird Creek. We treat them as one station, because both sources name Guntermann as the 1929 keeper.3,5

The lookout was destroyed in 1969.1,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as ground and gone.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in.3 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the point today, or whether the ground is open to visitors.

  1. Bluebird Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/bluebirdpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Bluebird Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/bluebird-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Shoshone County - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/shoshone-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Early Days in the Forest Service (Volume 4), Letters to Folks Back Home, July and September 1929, npshistory.com, https://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/1/early-days/4/sec21.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: dates, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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

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