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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Fish Butte Lookout

Clearwater NF lookout: camp 1915, cabin 1921, L-4 cab 1930 or 1931, 1934 fire account, 1953 concrete-based cab; gone by 1985; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Last used in the late 1960s or early 1970s per a 1981 history quoted on the Weebly page; confirmed gone in 1985 per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts

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: a gabled cab on a 6-foot log base (1931), then a hip-roofed cab on an 8-foot concrete base (1953)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
14 ft (4.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.33135, −115.39552
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-fish-butte

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. 1915 EventCamp lookout establishedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1917 StaffedJack Parsell, per a May 9, 1958 item quoted on the Weebly pageSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1921 BuiltLog cabin (about 14 by 16 feet per the Weebly page; the 1922 date is also given there)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1922 StaffedPhil Stadtman and Emmette Mosher, per Idaho Fire Lookouts (Lochsa book)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1931 BuiltGabled L-4 cab on a 6-foot log base; the Weebly page dates the work to 1930 with an 8-foot-high baseSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1934 BurnedThe lookout building burned in August 1934 per The Clearwater Story, quoted on the Weebly page; the same page also says a cabin was manned through 1953Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1934 StaffedLookout McHone fled to the Lochsa Ranger Station during the August 1934 spot firesSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1934 and 1953
  9. 1953 Replaced by a new structureHip-roofed L-4 cab on an 8-foot concrete base; the older cabin was dismantled after the new one was completedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1953 and 1985
  11. 1985 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  12. 1985 EventLookout confirmed gone (Idaho Fire Lookouts); gone in 1985 (firelookout.com)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  13. 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.

Fish Butte Lookout stood on the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho County, about 22 miles east of Kamiah, at an elevation of 5,346 feet.1,2 A camp lookout was set up there in 1915, and a log cabin was built in 1921.1,2

According to a May 9, 1958 item quoted on the Weebly page, Jack Parsell started with the Forest Service as a Fish Butte lookout in the summer of 1917.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists named staff from 1922 to 1929.2

Sources disagree on the next cab.1,2,3 Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts date a gabled L-4 cab on a 6-foot log base to 1931.1,2 The Weebly page dates the work to 1930 and gives an 8-foot-high log base.3

The Weebly page quotes The Clearwater Story for August 1934. Spot fires surrounded the lookout, so McHone fled to the Lochsa Ranger Station, and the lookout building burned.3 The same page says a cabin was manned through the 1953 season.3 None of the three sources explains how a lookout building that burned in 1934 came to be manned through 1953.1,2,3

In 1953 a new cab went up: a hip-roofed L-4 on a concrete base, with a concrete floor and an eight-foot understory of concrete block. The older cabin was dismantled once the new one was done.1,2,3 A road up from Fish Butte Saddle, described as steep and narrow, was also built that year.3

A 1981 Lochsa Ranger District history, quoted on the Weebly page, dates the last use to the late 1960s or early 1970s, followed by abandonment.3 Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts instead give 1985, the year the lookout was confirmed gone.1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site "Drive-Up" and "Removed / Destroyed" without explaining either tag.2 No source describes what remains on the butte today or whether the road to it is open.1,2,3

  1. Fish Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/fishbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Fish Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/fish-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Fish Butte, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/fish-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Fish Butte Lookout
Fish Butte 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: dates, 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, 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, status, agency, 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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