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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Dunn Peak Lookout

Also known as Dunn Peak (Storm)

A 1958 R-6 flat cab on a 20-foot timber tower in Idaho's St. Joe National Forest, last staffed full time in 1972; now holds radio and solar gear.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. No public access rule found. An OHV route listing allows vehicles and foot traffic, a 2024 visitor found the gate open, and the bottom stairs have been removed.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
OuterSpatial lists the route as open to motor vehicles, bicycles, horses and pedestrians. A 2024 visitor had been told the gate was always locked but found it open; the bottom set of stairs has been removed.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2024)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower20-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flat cabThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
5,607 ft (1,709 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.29469, −115.89965
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-dunn-peak

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1932 BuiltFirst lookout on the site: a 20-foot pole tower of the L-4 typeSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1958
  3. 1958 BuiltCurrent R-6 flat cab on a 20-foot treated timber tower; the register's built yearSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  4. 1972 Last staffedLast year staffed full time, per Forest Lookouts. Dunn Peak was Don Hammond's first post, and the Hammonds' seasons were 1972 and 1973Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, wsupress.wsu.edu
  5. 1973 ClosedThe Forest Service decided to close the lookout; the closing date is not given. The couple spent the summer of 1973 at the Middle Sister Peak towerSource: wsupress.wsu.edu
  6. No record between 1973 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 24, 2020 as US 1405, ID 112Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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 first lookout on Dunn Peak was a 20-foot pole tower of the L-4 type, built in 1932.1,2 The cab that stands there now is an R-6 flat cab on a 20-foot treated timber tower, built in 1958, and the register gives that year as the build date.3,1 Both dates are right for different structures, as firelookout.com explains.1

The peak sits about eight miles northwest of Avery, at 5,607 feet.1 Dunn Peak was Don Hammond's first post, and the couple's fire seasons were in 1972 and 1973. Nancy Sule Hammond later wrote about them in The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak.4 The cab measures fifteen feet on each side and stands two stories off the ground.4 Forest Lookouts gives 1972 as the last year the tower was staffed full time.2 The Forest Service then made the call to close the lookout. In the summer of 1973 the couple spent time at the Middle Sister Peak tower, ten miles southeast of Avery.4

The tower went to emergency status in the 1970s, and today the site has electronic equipment and solar panels.5 The register says the cab no longer seems to serve as a lookout, and that it houses communication equipment.3

Access is unclear. An off-road vehicle route listing on OuterSpatial shows motor vehicles, bicycles, horses and pedestrians as allowed.6 A visitor in July 2024 had been told the gate was always locked, but found it open, and reported that the lowest flight of stairs is gone.5 I found no official rule on whether visitors may climb the tower, so ask the Forest Service before planning a visit.

  1. Dunn (Storm) Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/dunnpk.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Dunn Peak, Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/dunn-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Dunn Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/dunn-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak, Washington State University Press, https://wsupress.wsu.edu/product/last-lookout-on-dunn-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Dunn Peak, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/dunn-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Dunn Peak Lookout OHV, OuterSpatial, https://www.outerspatial.com/trails/uid-0104-dunn-peak-lookout-ohv (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

2018 photo
2018 photo (2018)Photo: Tom Taylor, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Dunn Peak in 1957
Dunn Peak in 1957 (1957)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Nancy Hammond, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Dunn Peak in 1958
Dunn Peak in 1958 (1958)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Nancy Hammond, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Dunn Peak in 1972
Dunn Peak in 1972 (1972)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Nancy Hammond, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Dunn Peak in 1972
Dunn Peak in 1972 (1972)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Nancy Hammond, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Dunn Peak L.O.
Dunn Peak L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, Nancy Hammond, and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Dunn Peak
Dunn PeakPhoto: 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.

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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1958
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1932

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, design, height, 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: staffing, 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 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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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