FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Double Creek Ridge Lookout

Nez Perce NF L-4 cab on a 20-foot tower, built 1934 about 10 miles NE of Moose Creek; destroyed about 1951; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed about 1951 per Forest Lookouts and other pages; no source describes the site now

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower20-foot L-4 cab on a towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.23544, −114.80378 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-double-creek-ridge

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 4.1 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. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab on a 20-foot tower (Forest Lookouts, citing Kresek); firelookout.com and the Nez Perce list also give 1934Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1951
  3. 1951 DestroyedDestroyed about 1951 (Forest Lookouts gives c.1951); firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Nez Perce list give 1951Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1957 EventAdministration of the site moved from the Bitterroot National Forest to the Nez Perce National Forest; this came six years after destructionSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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 Double Creek Ridge lookout went up in 1934 as an L-4 cab, set on a 20-foot tower.1,2 The Nez Perce National Forest's list of its lookouts places the tower about 10 miles northeast of the Moose Creek Ranger Station.3 The same list gives its legal location as township 33 north, range 13 east, section 2.3

The Bitterroot National Forest administered the site first.1 In 1957 the administration passed to the Nez Perce National Forest.1 The lookout was destroyed in about 1951.1,2,4,3 Forest Lookouts credits that date to Ray Kresek, and the Nez Perce list draws on Kresek's book as well.1,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the site as a tower that is gone.5

None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the ridge is open to visitors.1,2,4,3,5

  1. Double Creek Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/double-creek-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Double Creek Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/doublecreekridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Double Creek Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/double-creek-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 980 m.

    • FFLA: 46.23544, −114.80378
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 46.24420, −114.80440

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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: 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: design, height, 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, height, status, agency, 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.