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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Fisher Peak Lookout

Kaniksu NF L-4 cab on Fisher Peak, Boundary County; built 1930 or 1937 per conflicting sources; gone by 1964; Trail #27 reaches the saddle below the summit today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1964 on both lookout pages. The Forest Service trail page says the lookout has long since disappeared.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Fisher Peak Trail #27, about 7 miles to the summit, listed for mid-June to November, subject to weather

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Parking is limited to turnouts near the trailhead, about 5.5 miles along Trout Creek Road #634.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on four-foot concrete piers, atop the summit's northernmost pointThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.86665, −116.53712
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-fisher-peak

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 4.2 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. 1929 EventNewspapers reported plans for a new station on Fisher Peak, one of three new lookouts the Forest Service contemplated.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 BuiltFirelookout.com dates the L-4 cab to 1930; the Idaho Fire Lookouts page gives 1937.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1931 First staffedLloyd Hydorn, the first staffer named on both pages.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1932 StaffedJohn Dolan, named for 1932 and 1933.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1934 StaffedChester Huffman.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1935 StaffedHoward Monks Jr.; the Idaho page adds Randall Bearse as an assistant that year.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1936 Last staffedDavid Pace, the last named staffer.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1937 BuiltIdaho Fire Lookouts gives 1937 for the L-4 cab; the same page's staff list begins in 1931.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. No record between 1937 and 1964
  10. 1964 EventListed as gone by 1964 on both pages; the sources do not say how it ended.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  11. 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.

Fisher Peak Lookout stood on the Kaniksu National Forest in Boundary County, at 7,580 feet.1 In 1929, two newspapers reported plans for a new station on Fisher Peak, one of three lookouts the Forest Service was considering that year.2

The sources disagree on when the lookout's cab went up. Firelookout.com dates an L-4 cab, set on four-foot concrete piers, to 1930.1 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page dates an L-4 cab on the northernmost point to 1937, although the same page lists a staffer in 1931.3

Named staff include Lloyd Hydorn in 1931, John Dolan in 1932 and 1933, Chester Huffman in 1934, and Howard Monks Jr. in 1935.1,3 The Idaho page adds that Randall Bearse assisted Monks that year and came from a Smith Creek CCC camp.3 David Pace is listed for 1936.1,3

Both pages say the lookout was gone by 1964, and firelookout.com calls it abandoned.1,3 Both also place a crow's nest two miles southeast, on Farnham Peak.1,3

Today, Fisher Peak Trail #27 reaches a saddle below the summit.4 The Forest Service says the trail was made to reach the former lookout, which is long gone, though the views remain.4 The trail is about seven miles long and is listed for mid-June to November, subject to weather. A short half-mile spur climbs from the saddle to the summit.4 Parking is limited to turnouts near the trailhead, about 5.5 miles up Trout Creek Road.4

  1. Fisher Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/fisherpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Fisher Peak - Forest Lookouts, Idaho Forest Lookouts index, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/fisher-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Fisher Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/fisher-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Fisher Peak Trail #27, USDA Forest Service Idaho Panhandle National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/idahopanhandle/recreation/fisher-peak-trail-27 (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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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, access, 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.