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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Chateau Rock Lookout Site

Clearwater NF L-4 cab on a boulder pile, built 1931 and in ruins since 1961; Idaho Fire Lookouts lists 1943 smokechasers and a hike-in site with no closure stated.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. In ruins since 1961 per three sources; Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it as Hike-In Ruins; no source describes the remains in detail

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure to climb or rent.

Access

Open to the public. On Clearwater National Forest land; Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it as hike-in and no closure is stated. The route is a rock scramble with ladders, and no source says it is safe to climb

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in per Idaho Fire Lookouts; the cab sat atop a boulder pile reached by scrambling and ladders

Facts

Status
Ruins
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab with a catwalk on concrete footings, reached by a scramble over the boulders and ladders for the last 80 feetThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,670 ft (1,728 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.67880, −115.50233
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-chateau-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.8 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. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab with a catwalk on concrete footings; ladders for the last 80 feetSources: firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1943 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Warren Yahr and Bill Fry, both smokechasers, under known staff for 1943Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1943 and 1961
  4. 1961 EventCab described as in ruins from 1961; no cause givenSources: firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1961 and 2011
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 22, 2011; nominated by Rod FosbackSource: firetower.org
  7. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Chateau Rock is a stack of granite boulders in the Clearwater National Forest, in Clearwater County, Idaho, about 20 miles northeast of Pierce.1,2 The register says the stack is nearly 200 feet high.1

An L-4 cab went up on the rock in 1931. It sat on concrete footings and had a catwalk.1 Reaching it meant scrambling over the boulders and then climbing ladders for the last 80 feet.1,3,2

A patrol camp stood three miles east, atop Green Point.2,4

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists two smokechasers for 1943, Warren Yahr and Bill Fry.3 The register also tells of a sow bear with a cub that a packer had to chase out of the cab.1

The register recorded the site in July 2011, on a nomination from Rod Fosback.1

Since 1961 the cab has existed only as ruins.1,2,4 None of the sources says what caused the ruin.1,3,2,4

Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site as hike-in ruins.3 The Forest Service administers the site, and no source says it is closed.1 The route the sources describe is a scramble over boulders and ladders, so anyone going near the rock should take care.1 We found no source that describes what remains on the rock now.3

  1. Chateau Rock Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/chateau-rock-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Chateau Rock Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/chateaurock.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Chateau Rock Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/chateau-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, list compiled by Margaret Sand, Walde Lookout and Cindy Schacher, U.S. Forest Service, June 2016, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Chateau Rock Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Chateau Rock Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: 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. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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

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