FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Fitzgerald Peak Lookout

Shoshone County, Idaho lookout on the St. Joe National Forest: a camp listed in 1934, an L-4 tower in 1938, destroyed in 1952. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1952; no source describes what remains at 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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.35160, −116.25660
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-fitzgerald-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 4.1 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. 1934 EventListed as a camp; the sources give no further detailSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1938 BuiltL-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1952 DestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 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.

Fitzgerald Peak lies about 14 miles east-northeast of St. Maries, in Shoshone County, Idaho, on the St. Joe National Forest. Its elevation is 4,490 feet.1,2

A camp is listed on the peak in 1934, and an L-4 tower in 1938.1,2 The tower was destroyed in 1952.1,2 Both listings give the same three dates.1,2

The Idaho Fire Lookouts page carries a "Drive-Up" tag beside its "Destroyed" label, but it gives no detail on what the site looks like now.2 No source I could find describes what, if anything, remains on the peak today, or whether the site is open to visitors. Anyone planning a trip should check with the St. Joe National Forest before going.

  1. Fitzgerald Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/fitzgeraldpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Fitzgerald Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/fitzgerald-peak-lookout/ (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: dates, 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, 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.