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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Cold Springs Lookout

Nez Perce National Forest lookout near Riggins, Idaho: 1930 log cabin, 1958 41-foot tower, torn down 1979; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. No source we read 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
Cab on a towerR-6 cab on a 41-foot treated timber towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.50101, −116.45102
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-cold-springs

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 3.7 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. 1930 Built14 by 14 foot log cabin, labeled L-5 on one siteSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. No record between 1930 and 1958
  3. 1958 Built41-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  4. No record between 1958 and 1979
  5. 1979 RemovedTower torn down; the Forest Service list gives destroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  6. 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.

Cold Springs Lookout stood eight miles northwest of Riggins, Idaho, in the Nez Perce National Forest, at 6,927 feet.1,2,3

The site began in 1930 with a 14-by-14-foot log cabin.1,3 In 1958 a 41-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 cab was built.1,2,3 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page labels the site drive-up.2

The Forest Service list says the cabin was removed and that the tower was destroyed in 1979.3 Two other pages say the tower was torn down that year.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the tower as gone.4

No source I read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the spot is open to the public. Check with the Nez Perce National Forest before going.

  1. Cold Springs Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/coldsprings.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Cold Springs Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/cold-springs-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Cold Springs Lookout
Cold Springs LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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: 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
  4. 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.