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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Crystal Peak Lookout

Original St. Joe NF tower (1954, L-4 cab) was gone by 1995. A 1959 Washington tower moved to nearby Crystal Ridge in 1983 is now a private rental.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1995 per firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the FFLA list. A separate 1959 tower, moved from Washington, stands on private land at nearby Crystal Ridge.

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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the original site Drive-Up even though the tower is gone. No source describes what, if anything, remains there.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower41-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cab, built 1954; a 1930s crow's nest stood on the peak before itThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1954
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.14382, −116.30981
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-crystal-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 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. 1954 Built41-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1967 StaffedBarbara Nelson is the staff entry listed for 1967; a second name, Neil Nelson, carries a Kellogg Evening News note under the same headingSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1967 and 1995
  4. 1995 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  5. 1995 EventListed as gone by 1995; sources do not say how it came downSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.org
  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.

The original Crystal Peak lookout stood in the St. Joe National Forest.1 Its tower was a 41-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cab, built in 1954.1,2 A crow's nest from the 1930s had stood on the peak before it.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Barbara Nelson under known staff for 1967.2

The tower was gone by 1995.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list marks the original site as gone, in Shoshone County.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site "Drive-Up" even though the tower is gone.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.

A tower called Crystal Ridge appears on that list as standing. The list says it is a relocated tower from Stranger Mountain, Washington, and its coordinates are about 1.5 km from those of the original site.3 Wander in RAW says the Washington Department of Natural Resources built that tower in 1959 in eastern Washington. It served there for about 24 years, until it blocked the view of a newer lookout and had to be removed.4 In 1983 Dave Kresek bought it for one dollar and moved it to Crystal Ridge.4 Lookouttowers.org instead names the Idaho Department of Natural Resources as the builder, so the sources disagree on who built it.4,5

Today that tower is a short-term rental on 13 private acres near Fernwood, Idaho, under the Crystal Peak Lookout name.5,6 Its owner, Kristie Wolfe, bought the property in 2017 and remodeled it.4,5 Listing posts dated April and May 2026 said the place was for sale.6 Its 1959 build date and Washington start set it apart from the 1954 tower on Crystal Peak.1,4 Because the land is private, visitors should not walk up to it uninvited.

  1. Crystal Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/crystalpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Crystal Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/crystal-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho Lookouts (by Region), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/id-rg/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Unique Stay: Escape to Crystal Peak Lookout, a Fire Lookout Rental in Idaho, Wander in RAW, https://www.wanderinraw.com/post/2019/02/25/escape-to-crystal-peak-lookout (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Crystal Peak Lookout, The Lookout Tower Design Desk, https://www.lookouttowers.org/casebook/crystal-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Crystal Peak Lookout, 3697 Crystal Peak Road, Fernwood, ID, FindGlocal, https://www.findglocal.com/US/Fernwood/218899752281466/Crystal-Peak-Lookout (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Crystal Peak Lookout
Crystal Peak 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: 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.