FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Dairy Mountain Lookout

Nez Perce NF lookout: 75-ft crow's nest in 1927, log cabin in 1929, pole tower in 1945; destroyed 1960. Sources disagree on the 1945 tower's size.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed 1960; the FFLA list marks the tower gone

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 tags the site Drive-Up. The tower is gone and no source describes the site now.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower1945 pole tower with L-4 cab per two sites (40 ft), or 50-ft L-6 with gable roof per the Forest Service list; earlier 75-ft crow's nest (1927) and log cabin (1929)The designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1927
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.68180, −116.12118
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-dairy-mountain

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 3.5 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 Built75-foot crow's nestSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1927 StaffedTed Oliver is the one known staff entrySource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1929 Builtlog cabinSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1929 and 1945
  5. 1945 Builtpole tower with L-4 cab per two sites (40 ft); Forest Service list gives a 50-ft L-6 with gable roofSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1945 and 1960
  7. 1960 Destroyedtower destroyed; the year is given by sites 1-3, and the FFLA list (site 4) marks it gone without a dateSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov, idahofirelookouts.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.

Dairy Mountain lookout stood in the Nez Perce National Forest.1 It sat north-northeast of Riggins, Idaho.2 A 75-foot crow's nest went up in 1927, and a log cabin was added in 1929.1

In 1945 a pole tower went up on the mountain.1 The sources disagree on its size. Two sites describe a 40-foot tower with an L-4 cab,1,3 while the Forest Service list gives a 50-foot L-6 tower with a gable roof.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists one known staff member, Ted Oliver, for 1927.3

The tower was destroyed in 1960.1,2,3

Today the Idaho Fire Lookouts page labels the site "Drive-Up," even though the tower is gone.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list marks the tower as gone.4 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, or whether the public can visit it.

  1. Dairy Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/dairymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, Nez Perce National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Dairy Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/dairy-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts (by Region), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/id-rg/ (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: dates, 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, 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.