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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Elk Ridge

A 1936 pole platform and tent, then a 1940 40-ft pole L-4 tower on the Idaho-Montana border; removed in the 1950s, with concrete piers and eye hooks reported.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in the 1950s; concrete piers and embedded eye hooks are the reported remains.

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
Trail
Hike-in site, per Idaho Fire Lookouts

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-ft pole tower with L-4 cab (1940), after a 1936 pole platform and tentThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1940
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.03776, −116.05013 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-elk-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 3.9 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. 1936 EventPole platform and tent campSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 Built40-ft pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 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.

The Elk Ridge lookout sat on the Idaho-Montana border in the Kaniksu National Forest, about nine miles southeast of Clark Fork in Bonner County, at 5,020 feet.1

The site started in 1936 with a pole platform and a tent.1,2,3 In 1940 a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab replaced that camp.1,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts has not yet recorded who staffed this lookout.2 A 1948 item from the Sandpoint News-Bulletin, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, says three men spent a Tuesday at the lookout in August 1948.3

The tower came down in the 1950s.1,3 Firelookout.com says it was removed, while the Forest Lookouts page, citing Kresek, says it was destroyed.1,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts describes the site as largely forgotten.2 The main remains are concrete piers and embedded eye hooks.2 No source says whether the site is open to the public.1,2,3 The Idaho listing calls it a hike-in site.2

  1. Elk Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/elkridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Elk Ridge – Idaho Fire Lookouts, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/elk-ridge/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Elk Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, Idaho, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/elk-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Elk Ridge
Elk RidgePhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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 1.6 km (1.0 mi).

    • FFLA: 48.03776, −116.05013
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 48.03962, −116.07145
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 48.03830, −116.05770

    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: 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, 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.