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Fire lookout · Benewah County, Idaho

East Dennis Lookout

East Dennis lookout in Benewah County: crow's nest 1915, two-tree platform 1932, 30-ft L-4 tower 1935, destroyed 1962; a 2022 post reports cement footings.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in 1962. An Idaho Fire Lookouts post (2022) says cement footings helped locate the site and that one footing was found nearby; nothing is left of the crow's nest and platform.

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 towerL-4 cab on a 30-ft pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1915
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Benewah County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.07067, −116.69281
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-east-dennis

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. 1915 BuiltCrow's nest developed on the site, per firelookout.com; the 1915 Coeur d'Alene TPA report describes a lookout point established with a telephone link (Section 14)Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 EventPotlatch TPA annual report: the Forest Service improved 'Dennis Butte' (Section 15), which had not been used for lack of telephone serviceSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1932 BuiltTwo-tree platform at the 20-foot levelSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 Built30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab on the southeastern-most pointSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1935 and 1950
  6. 1950 StaffedBill Gorsuch listed as a weekend lookout, per the former Forest Fire Lookout RegistrySource: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1962 DestroyedTower destroyedSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.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.

The East Dennis site, in Benewah County on the St. Joe National Forest, was in use before any tower stood there.1,2 A 1915 report from the Coeur d'Alene Timber Protective Association describes a lookout point it established, with a direct telephone connection to the Fire Warden's headquarters.2

A 1921 annual report from the Potlatch association says the Forest Service improved a point called Dennis Butte, which had gone unused for lack of telephone service.2 The 1915 report places its point in Section 14, while the 1921 report places Dennis Butte in Section 15, so the two may not be the same spot.2

A crow's nest was developed there in 1915, and a platform set in two trees, 20 feet up, followed in 1932.1,2 In 1935 an L-4 cab was set atop a 30-foot pole on the southeasternmost point.1,3,2

A 1950 staff entry on Idaho Fire Lookouts names Mr. Bill Gorsuch, from the former Forest Fire Lookout Registry, as a weekend lookout.3 The tower was destroyed in 1962.1,2

A post on Idaho Fire Lookouts dated September 13, 2022 says the site was fairly easy to find because of cement footings in the trees, and that nothing is left of the crow's nest and platform.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.4 No source says whether the site is open to the public.2,1,3

  1. East Dennis Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/eastdennis.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. East Dennis - Forest Lookouts (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/east-dennis.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. East Dennis Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/east-dennis-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts - Forest Fire Lookout Association, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

East Dennis Lookout
East Dennis LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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: 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
  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, staffing, 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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