FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Falls Point Lookout

Nez Perce NF L-4 cab on a log base, c.1933; firelookout.com says abandoned 1950; Forest Service says burned September 1963; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in September 1963 per the Forest Service; firelookout.com gives abandonment in 1950, which the other sources do not confirm

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
Two-story buildingL-4 cab on a log base (10-foot log crib, per firelookout.com)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.03521, −115.33408
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-falls-point

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 3.6 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. 1933 BuiltL-4 cab on a log base; the Weebly page gives circa 1933 and a gable roofSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1950
  3. 1950 Abandonedfirelookout.com only; the Forest Service and Weebly give no abandonment yearSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1963 BurnedBurned in September 1963; the Forest Service calls the September 1963 work a disposalSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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.

Falls Point Lookout stood on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho County, about 30 miles east-southeast of Kooskia.1,2 It sat a short distance southwest of Selway Falls, along the Selway River, at an elevation of 5,069 feet.1,3,2

Sources give 1933 as the build year.1,3,4,2 The lookout was an L-4 cab set on a log base, which firelookout.com describes as a 10-foot log crib about a mile north of the summit.1,3,2 The Weebly page gives the date as circa 1933 and describes a gable roof.4

The Forest Service says the lookout went out of use and was burned in September 1963.2 It also suggests that other lookouts nearby, with a wider view, may have led to the decision to remove this one.2

The sources disagree on when use ended.1,4 Firelookout.com says the lookout was abandoned in 1950.1 The Weebly page says it fell into disuse because its view was limited, under a September 1963 entry, and gives no separate year.4 All of them agree it burned in 1963.1,3,4,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site "Drive-Up" and "Burned Down" without explaining either tag.3 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today or whether the road to it is open.1,3,4,2

  1. Falls Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/fallspoint292.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Falls Point Lookout, U.S. Forest Service Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests (Facebook post, September 16, 2021), https://www.facebook.com/NPClwNFs/posts/falls-point-lookout-was-located-30-miles-east-south-east-of-kooskia-and-a-short-/6394359827255972/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Falls Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/falls-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Falls Point, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/falls-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Falls Point Lookout
Falls Point 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.