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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Dead Horse

Log cabin and crow's nest from 1914, a 40-foot L-4 tower from 1934, destroyed in 1961; a 2022 visit found only two telephone insulators.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1961; a 2022 visit found only two telephone insulators in trees near a clearing

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in per Idaho Fire Lookouts; no route is given

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot L-4 tower on North PointThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1914
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.73426, −115.26762
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-dead-horse

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. 1914 BuiltLog cabin with a crow's nestSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1919 StaffedJune 1919 Clearwater Republican item says Mike Andrews would take charge of the lookoutSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1921 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Mike Andrews; an August 1921 item reports R. M. Crow arriving from Dead HorseSources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 Built40-foot L-4 tower atop the north point; patrol point one mile southeastSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1934 and 1961
  6. 1961 DestroyedBoth sources give 1961Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. No record between 1961 and 2022
  8. 2022 Condition assessmentIdaho Fire Lookouts post dated October 21, 2022: two telephone insulators found in trees, nothing elseSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 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.

Dead Horse Lookout stood on a mountain in Clearwater County, Idaho, about eight miles south of the Canyon Ranger Station.1 The earliest structure listed was a log cabin with a crow's nest, built in 1914.1,2 A 1915 entry in the Clearwater Timber Protective Association's ninth annual report lists a Dead Horse Lookout Cabin.3

In 1934 a 40-foot L-4 tower went up on the north point, with the patrol point one mile to the southeast.1,2

Two people appear in the records in connection with the lookout. A June 1919 item in the Clearwater Republican said Mike Andrews would go to Dead Horse to run the lookout.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists him there again in 1921, and an August 1921 item reports R. M. Crow arriving from Dead Horse.2,3

Sources agree the tower was destroyed in 1961.1,2 They do not agree on who ran the lookout. Idaho Fire Lookouts names the Clearwater National Forest, while the Forest Lookouts page ties it to the Clearwater Timber Protective Association.2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts describes the site as a hike-in and reports a visit in a post dated October 21, 2022.2 The writers spent a long time combing the summit and found nothing but two telephone insulators, lodged in trees beside an open area.2 No source we read says whether the site is open to visitors today.

  1. Dead Horse Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/deadhorse.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Deadhorse Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/deadhorse-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Deadhorse, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/deadhorse.html (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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.