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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Elk Mountain (West)

Also known as Elk West

A 1914 crow's nest, a 1915 42-ft platform and a 1934 50-ft L-4 tower for the Clearwater Timber Protective Association in Clearwater County; both sources list it as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Both lookout sources list it as gone.

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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site Drive-Up.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower50-ft L-4 tower, after a 1914 crow's nest and log cabin and a 1915 42-ft platformThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1914
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.64919, −115.62900
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-elk-mountain-west

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 4.0 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 BuiltCrow's nest and log cabinSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1915 Built42-ft platformSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1915 and 1934
  4. 1934 Built50-ft L-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Elk Mountain West, also called Elk West, was a lookout site in Clearwater County, Idaho, eight miles east of Headquarters.1,2 The Clearwater Timber Protective Association, usually written CTPA, is the agency listed for it.1,3,4 The Clearwater County listing places it at township 38 North, range 7 East, section 7.4

The site's history starts in 1914 with a crow's nest and a log cabin.1,3 A 42-foot platform followed in 1915, and a 50-foot L-4 tower was built in 1934.1,3 Two patrol points sat east of the site.1,3

Both sources list the lookout as gone.1,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association list agrees.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site drive-up, with an elevation of 5,299 feet.3 No source describes what remains at the site today.

  1. Elk West Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/elkwest.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Elk West Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/elk-west-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Clearwater County - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, Idaho, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/clearwater-county.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. 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. 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.