FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Dan Lee (Dewey)

Clearwater National Forest L-4 cab, built 1941 and destroyed 1952; three sources agree on the dates, and none describes what remains at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1952

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1941
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.45065, −115.71375
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-dan-lee-dewey

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 3.9 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. 1941 BuiltFirelookout.com and the Forest Service list say L-4 cab; Idaho Fire Lookouts says L-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1952 DestroyedAll three sources date the loss to 1952; none gives a causeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  3. 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.

Dan Lee (Dewey) was a lookout on the Clearwater National Forest, six miles southeast of Pierce in Clearwater County, Idaho.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts files the lookout in its St. Joe - Clearwater group.3 Firelookout.com gives its elevation as 5,005 feet.1 The structure was an L-4 cab, dated to 1941.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts calls the 1941 structure an L-4 tower instead, so the sources disagree on its form.1,3,2

All three sources date its destruction to 1952.1,3,2 The Forest Service list was compiled in June 2016 and draws on Forest Service records, among other material.2

No source describes what remains at the site today. Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site drive-up, but it does not say whether anything is left there or whether the public can visit it now.3

  1. Dan Lee (Dewey) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/danleedewey.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Dan Lee (Dewey) Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/dan-lee-dewey-lookout/ (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. 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, 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.