FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho

Boehls Butte Lookout

Clearwater County 40-foot pole lookout built 1934 with an L-4 cab, rebuilt in 1953 per a timber association report and destroyed in 1972; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1972. No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site.

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?
Yes, you can drive up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Type unknown40-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Potlatch Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho
Coordinates
46.86827, −115.87455
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-boehls-butte

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 4.1 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. 1934 Built40-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1936 EventArchives West aerial photograph dated 1936, captioned Beohls Butte LookoutSource: archiveswest.orbiscascade.org
  3. No record between 1936 and 1953
  4. 1953 RebuiltTimber association annual report says the tower was completely rebuilt that yearSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1953 and 1972
  6. 1972 DestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 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.

Boehls Butte Lookout stood about 10 miles northeast of Elk River in Clearwater County, Idaho, at an elevation of 3,610 feet.1 Firelookout.com dates it to 1934, when it was a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1 The Idaho Fire Lookouts site gives the same 1934 build and tower type.2

An aerial photograph in the Archives West collection carries the caption "Beohls Butte Lookout," spelled that way in the catalogue, and is dated 1936.3

The Forest Lookouts site quotes a 1953 annual report from the Potlatch Timber Protective Association, which says the tower was fully rebuilt that year.4

The tower was destroyed in 1972.1,2

No source I read describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, and none says whether the public may visit it today. The Idaho Fire Lookouts page tags the site as a drive-up site.2

  1. Boehls Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/boehlsbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Boehls Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/boehls-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. A.B. Curtis photograph collection, Archives West, https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv354765 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Boehls Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/boehls-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: name, location, status, 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
  2. 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
  3. 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.