FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Cougar Peak

Gone log cupola cabin, built in 1927 near Kellogg, Idaho; destroyed in 1955. Only names carved into rocks remain at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1955. Idaho Fire Lookouts found almost nothing left, not even the cement footings.

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. On Coeur d'Alene National Forest land and listed as drive-up. The level is inferred from the forest and drive-up notes; no source states an access rule.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabLog cupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1927
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.68239, −116.21009
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-cougar-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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

  1. 1927 BuiltLog cupola cabin; logs cut in 1926 and walls laid up in 1927, per a 1928 inspection report quoted on Forest LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 EventPatrol tower or point added about a mile away; sources say west (firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts) or northwest (Forest Lookouts)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 First staffedBus Peterson, named as the first lookout per a 1962 Kellogg Evening News item; photo credited to the USFS collection under 1939Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1944 StaffedWerner McGillvray (Idaho Fire Lookouts); firelookout.com spells the name WarnerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1947 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Ben CarterSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1948 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Bob Kelly; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis (Idaho Fire Lookouts)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1955 DestroyedDestroyed in 1955 per all three sitesSources: 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.

Cougar Peak Lookout stood about 10 miles north-northwest of Kellogg, in Shoshone County, Idaho, on Coeur d'Alene National Forest land.1,2 It was a log cupola cabin, built in 1927 from logs cut the year before.1,3

A 1928 inspection report, quoted on the Forest Lookouts site, gives the same timeline, with the logs cut in 1926 and the walls raised in 1927.3 A patrol tower about a mile away was added in 1931, to the west or northwest depending on the source.1,4,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts names Bus Peterson as the first lookout, citing a 1962 Kellogg Evening News item, and credits a photo of him to the Forest Service collection under 1939.4 Later named lookouts include Werner McGillvray in 1944, whom firelookout.com spells Warner, Ben Carter in 1947, and Bob Kelly and Fred Davis in 1948.1,4

The lookout was destroyed in 1955, a date all three sites agree on.1,4,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list also marks it gone.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts reports that little remains, and even the cement footings are gone. The one notable trace is names carved into the rocks, which run from the 1920s to recent times.4 The site is listed as drive-up.4 No source gives an access rule.1,4,3

  1. Cougar Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/cougarpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Cougar Peak - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/cougar-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Cougar Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/cougar-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Cougar Peak
Cougar PeakPhoto: 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: 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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

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