FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Elk Summit Lookout

A 1924 cupola cabin on an Idaho County summit near Powell, recorded as gone; no source describes what remains today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Every list checked marks it gone; no source describes what remains on the site

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
Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as a hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabcupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.32866, −114.66782 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-elk-summit

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.8 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. 1924 BuiltCupola cabin, as listed by the Clearwater National Forest list and Idaho Fire LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 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 Summit in Idaho County was a lookout site about 13 miles south-southeast of the Powell Ranger Station.1,2 The Clearwater National Forest list records a cupola cabin there, dated to 1924.1,3,2 That list was compiled in June 2016 from Forest Service records and a book by Ray Kresek.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts also tags the site as a hike-in.3 The Clearwater list gives no elevation and no photo for it.2

Every list checked marks the cabin as gone.1,3,2,4 The state list places the site at 46.32866 north, 114.66782 west.4 No source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.1,3,2

Do not mix this site up with a second Elk Summit on the state list. That one sits at different coordinates and is recorded as a standing tower.4

  1. Elk Summit Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/elksummit292a.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/r01/nezperce-clearwater/publication/fseprd507528%20(1).pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Elk Summit Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/elk-summit-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Fire Lookouts in Idaho, firelookout.org, 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 1.5 km (0.9 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.32866, −114.66782
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 46.32381, −114.64983

    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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.