Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho
Clarke Mountain Lookout
A 1952 L-4 cab on a 10-foot concrete base on Clarke Mountain, Clearwater National Forest. Abandoned, hike-in, and last recorded in poor shape in 2003.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Hike-in on National Forest land. No closure notice found in the sources. Structure described as unsafe at last report.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- Hike-in only. A 2003 visitor walked an old trail from the Bungalow Ranger Station site, which is open to motorcycles. Another route from Elk Mountain is an ATV trail.
- Staffing
- Not staffed (as of 2003)
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Two-story buildingL-4 cab on a 10-foot concrete base; a D-6 cupola cabin from the 1920s stood firstThe designs: L-4, D-6
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1952
- Height
- 10 ft (3.0 m)
- Elevation
- 5,208 ft (1,587 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Clearwater County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 46.62992, −115.54548
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-clarke-mountain
View from the cab
What you see from the 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.
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
- 1952 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
- 1952 BuiltL-4 cab built atop a 10-foot concrete baseSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
- No record between 1952 and 2003
- 2003 EventRegister visit report dated July 12, 2003: base collapsing, catwalk unsound on two sides, sign asks for restoration help, not staffedSource: nhlr.org
- 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, June 1, 2004Source: nhlr.org
- TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.
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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Clarke Mountain's first lookout was a D-6 cupola cabin from the 1920s.1 The present L-4 cab went up on a 10-foot concrete base in 1952, and the Forest Service's list of Clearwater lookouts gives the same year.1,2,3
Idaho Fire Lookouts names people who staffed the tower from the 1930s into the early 1980s. The site credits Fire Lookouts of the Northwest for a note that one of them, Jimmy Clarke, was killed on duty, though the exact year is unknown.4
I could not find a source that dates when the tower was abandoned. The Forest Service list marks it as abandoned, and firelookout.com adds that it is heavily vandalized.3,2
The National Historic Lookout Register added it on June 1, 2004.1
A register visit report dated July 12, 2003 describes a concrete base that was giving way and a catwalk that was unsafe on two sides. Beams had been added beneath the cab for support, and a posted sign asked for help restoring the lookout.1
Today it is a hike-in site.4 The 2003 visitor walked an old trail from the Bungalow Ranger Station site, which is open to motorcycles, and another route from Elk Mountain has become an ATV trail.1 I did not find a closure notice, but the newest condition report I found is from 2003, and the structure was already in poor shape then. Please do not climb it, and check with the Clearwater National Forest before you go.
- Clarke Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/clarke-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Clarke Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/clarke.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Clarke Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/clarke-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Standing
- NHLR: Standing
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): Gone
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, height, photos, 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: dates, 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: 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, status, agency, access, staffing, 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
- NHLR register entry US 580 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Clearwater National Forest Lookouts (USDA Forest Service, Clearwater National Forest) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Clarke Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Clarke Mountain Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Clarke Mountain 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.