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Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Custer Lookout

A 1933 R-5 groundhouse lookout with catwalk in Custer County, reached by a 0.7-mile trail; listed as standing and registered in 2008.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Reached on a 0.7-mile Forest Service trail (#4164) that ends at the lookout. The trail page lists horseback and motorcycle riding. No closure found. No recent condition report.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in per Idaho Fire Lookouts. Cutoff trail #4164 begins at a junction with Ramey Cr #4163 and ends at the lookout.
Staffing
Unknown (as of 1981)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabR-5 (Region 5) C-3 cab, a 14 by 14 ft groundhouse with catwalk; the design dates to 1917The design: C-3
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,742 ft (2,969 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.34929, −114.62409
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-custer

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.6 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 Built14 by 14 ft Region 5 groundhouse cab with catwalk erectedSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1972
  3. 1972 EventLast used for fire detection, per Rex's page (line garbled; conflicts with 1981 staffing)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1981 FireForest fire came within 100 yards of the lookout; the staffer had to be evacuatedSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1981 StaffedTeresa Fleck staffed the lookout, per Idaho Fire Lookouts citing the Kellogg Evening NewsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1981 and 2008
  7. 2008 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, November 20, 2008Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2014 Condition assessmentCondition assessment carried out by a volunteer over two days.Source: firelookout.org
  9. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Custer Lookout is a 14-by-14-foot groundhouse with a catwalk, built in 1933.1 Its cab is a Region 5 design that dates to 1917 and came before the L-4 cab, which was developed in the early 1930s.1,2 The register says it is one of very few of its kind in Idaho.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts adds that the design was unpopular in the Northwest.3

Rex's Fire Lookout page says the lookout was last used for fire detection in 1972, though that line is garbled.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts reports that Teresa Fleck staffed it in 1981 and had to leave when a forest fire came within 100 yards, citing the Kellogg Evening News.3 The two accounts do not agree, and I could not settle which is right.

The National Historic Lookout Register added the lookout on November 20, 2008.1 A Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks it as standing.5

Today the lookout is reached on a 0.7-mile Forest Service trail, number 4164, which starts at a junction with Ramey Cr #4163 and ends at the lookout.6 The trail page lists horseback riding and motorcycle trail riding as its uses.6 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site "Hike-In Emergency Use."3 I found no recent condition report, so check with the Salmon-Challis National Forest before you visit.

  1. Custer Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/custer-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Custer Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/custer.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Custer Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/custer-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Custer - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/custer.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Custer Lookout Cutoff Trail #4164, Salmon-Challis National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/salmon-challis/recreation/trails/custer-lookout-cutoff-trail-4164 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Custer Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Custer Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
View from lookout
View from lookoutPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout interior
Lookout interiorPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Custer L.O.
Custer L.OPhoto: Jim Reid and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Custer in 2010
Custer in 2010 (2010)Photo: Jim Reid and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Custer Lookout
Custer LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: photos, 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
  4. 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
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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

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