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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Copper Mountain Lookout

Kootenai County Copper Mountain: tree platform c.1918, 40-ft pole tower 1923, 50-ft steel tower 1940, moved to Faset Peak 1954; now gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The L-4 cab was removed in 1950 and the steel tower moved to Faset Peak in 1954. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the lookout as removed. Footings remain at the summit per Willhite.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Hike-in on Coeur d'Alene National Forest land. The level is inferred from the hike route and national forest ownership; no source states an access rule. Willhite describes a gated road that is walked or biked.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Willhite: about 2 miles one way from Marie Saddle, 900 ft gain. Alternatively, park on a saddle on FR 3907 and walk or bike the gated road to the summit.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with 6x6 cab (1923), later a 50-foot steel tower; L-4 ground cabin added 1934The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.64857, −116.48084
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-copper-mountain-2

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. 1918 EventTree platform developedSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1923 Built40-foot pole tower with 6x6 cab and ground log cabin for living quartersSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 AlteredL-4 cab added on the ground for living quarters; road access to the summitSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 Built50-foot steel tower built (1942 in the Weebly list)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1944 StaffedOnly named lookout on recordSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1950 RemovedL-4 cab offered for sale to the public and removedSource: firelookout.com
  7. 1954 MovedSteel tower moved to Faset PeakSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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.

The Copper Mountain Lookout in Kootenai County stood on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, about 12 miles east of Coeur d'Alene.1,2 It is listed separately from the Boundary County Copper Mountain of the same name.3 The first structure was a tree platform, developed around 1918.1,4,5

A 40-foot pole tower with a 6-by-6-foot cab went up in 1923, with a log cabin on the ground for living quarters.1,4,5 In 1934 an L-4 cab was added on the ground for living quarters, and the summit gained road access.1,2,5 A 50-foot steel tower followed. Three sources date it to 1940, while a Weebly list gives 1942.1,2,5,4

The only named lookout on record is from 1944.1,2 The two towers stood on opposite sides of the summit at least through 1949.1

The L-4 cab was put up for public sale and taken away in 1950.1 The steel tower was taken down in 1954 and relocated to Faset Peak.1,2,4,5 Firelookout.com gives 1923 to 1942 as the lookout's span in its heading, which does not match its own later entries.1 The index lists the tower as gone.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in, with the lookout removed.2 Willhite describes a hike of about two miles one way from Marie Saddle, gaining about 900 feet.5 From a saddle on FR 3907 a gated road leads to the summit, and Willhite advises parking and walking or biking it.5

On the summit, Willhite notes that the most recent footings on the high point seem to belong to a steel tower.5 USGS notes seem to put the steel tower at the lower point, while an image of it looks more like the high point, so the exact spot is uncertain.5 Photo captions mention wire at the lower site, and also glass and nails.5 Beyond these footings and captions, no source describes the site today.5

  1. Copper Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/coppermtn243.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Copper Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com), https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/copper-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookout list for Idaho, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Copper Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Idaho Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/copper-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Copper Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/copper_mountain_lookout/tower_069.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Copper Mountain Lookout
Copper Mountain 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  5. 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.