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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Browns Rock Lookout

Clearwater County, ID tower: a 1923 log cabin, a 1931 60-foot pole tower, a 1934 50-foot L-4 tower, destroyed in 1963; the site is now reportedly a gravel pit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1963 per two listings; Forest Lookouts gives no destruction date; Idaho Fire Lookouts says a gravel pit covers the likely tower 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
Trail
Labeled Drive-up by Idaho Fire Lookouts; the tower is gone and no source says whether the site is open now

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower50-foot pole L-4 tower (1934), after a 60-foot pole tower with enclosed platform (1931)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater Timber Protective Association (Forest Lookouts); Clearwater National Forest (Idaho Fire Lookouts)
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.71231, −115.71015
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-browns-rock

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 4.2 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. 1923 BuiltLog cabinSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1931 Built60-foot pole tower with enclosed platformSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1934 Built50-foot pole L-4 towerSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  4. 1939 EventRoad from headquarters to the lookout reported completed, by way of Dull Axe lookout, with about two miles of spur road to Dull Axe still to build (Lewiston Morning Tribune, January 25, 1939, as quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1939 and 1963
  6. 1963 DestroyedDestroyed; neither listing gives a causeSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.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.

Browns Rock Lookout sat in Clearwater County, Idaho.1,2 Forest Lookouts lists it under the Clearwater Timber Protective Association, while Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the Clearwater National Forest as the agency.3,2

The earliest entry is a log cabin, dated to 1923.3,1 By 1931 a 60-foot pole tower with an enclosed platform stood there, and a 50-foot pole L-4 tower is dated to 1934.3,1

In January 1939 the Lewiston Morning Tribune reported that the road from headquarters to the lookout was completed by way of Dull Axe lookout, though about two miles of spur road to Dull Axe still needed building. Forest Lookouts quotes the report.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com both give 1963 as the year the lookout was destroyed.3,1

Idaho Fire Lookouts suggests that logging and a gravel pit have nearly erased the site.3 Its best estimate for the tower's location is the highest point, where a gravel pit now sits.3 No source describes any structure left there, or whether the ground is open to visitors today.3,1,2

  1. Browns Rock Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/brownsrock.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Browns Rock, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/browns-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Browns Rock Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/browns-rock-lookout/ (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: 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: agency, 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

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