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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Crane Hill Lookout

30-foot L-4 tower in the Nez Perce National Forest, built about 1933 and destroyed in 1954; no source describes what remains today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1954 according to three site sources; no source describes what 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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.05773, −115.80270
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-crane-hill

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 4.0 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. 1933 Built30-foot tower with L-4 cab; the Idaho County list gives c.1933Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1954
  3. 1954 DestroyedDestroyed in 1954 according to all three site sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 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.

Crane Hill was a 30-foot tower with an L-4 cab in the Nez Perce National Forest.1,2 The Idaho County list places it in Township 31 North, Range 5 East, Section 2, and gives the same design.3 The lookout dates to about 1933.1,2,3 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page gives the site's elevation as 3,823 feet and files it under its Selway region.2

It was destroyed in 1954, according to the three lookout sites we read.1,2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks it gone as a tower, at 46.05773 north and 115.8027 west.4

The Idaho Fire Lookouts page tags the lookout as drive-up.2 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the ground is open to visitors.

  1. Crane Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/cranehill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Crane Hill Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/crane-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho County (A-L), Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/idaho-county-a-l.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho fire lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: 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, 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.