Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho
Bumblebee Peak Lookout
Coeur d'Alene NF lookout 12 miles northwest of Kellogg, ID: platform 1931, L-4 cab 1933, R-6 cab 1959 or 1960, destroyed 1975; footings found on site.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1975 per three listings (firelookout.com says removed); Idaho Fire Lookouts found footings 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
- Type
- Cab on a tower30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (1933); later 30-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cabThe designs: L-4, R-6
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Coeur d'Alene National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Shoshone County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 47.67666, −116.31041
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-bumblebee-peak
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 4.1 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
- 1931 EventPlatform tower located at the siteSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1931 First staffedMick Clumper listed for 1931 to 1933 and again in 1935Source: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1933 Built30-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1933 and 1959
- 1959 Rebuilt30-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab; firelookout.com dates it 1960Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1972 Last staffedKim Park, last name listedSource: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1975 DestroyedListed as destroyed; firelookout.com says removedSources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, spokanehistorical.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Bumblebee Peak sits about 12 miles northwest of Kellogg in Shoshone County, Idaho, on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, at an elevation of 4,746 feet.1 The site was first developed with a platform tower in 1931.1,2,3 A 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab was built there in 1933.1,2,3
A second tower, 30 feet tall with a treated timber R-6 flat cab, is dated 1959 by two sources.2,3 The firelookout.com page puts the new tower in 1960 instead.1
Staff listings begin with Mick Clumper, who is listed for 1931 to 1933 and again in 1935.2 From 1951 to 1957 most of the names are married couples, starting with Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Davis.2 The last name listed is Kim Park, in 1972.2
The tower was destroyed in 1975.3,4 Firelookout.com says it was removed that year instead.1
Idaho Fire Lookouts' visit notes say the footings they found probably came from the most recent tower, plus one older footing that is badly crumbled.2 They could not find the privy, but several benchmarks are on the nearby point.2 The site is listed as a drive-up location, and the sources we read name no closure or permission rule.2
- Bumblebee Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/bumblebee.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Bumblebee Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/bumblebee-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Bumblebee Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/bumblebee-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Bumblebee Lookout, Spokane Historical, https://spokanehistorical.org/files/show/4448 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- 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
- Bumblebee Lookout. (Spokane Historical) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Bumblebee Peak on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Bumblebee Peak Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Bumblebee Peak on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.