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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Fog Mountain Lookout

Log cabin built 1924, replaced by an L-4 cab in 1935, abandoned 1950 and since departed; staffed 1939-1941; no source describes remains today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1950 and has since departed; no source describes remains today

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
The Forest Service trailhead page does not describe the lookout site; the Fog Mountain Trailhead road needs four-wheel drive or a hike or horse ride in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (replaced a 1924 log cabin with cupola in 1935)The designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1924
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.09048, −115.23282
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-fog-mountain

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 3.7 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 BuiltOriginal log cabin with cupolaSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab replaced the log cabinSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 StaffedMr. LG 'Jud' Morris, per the Former Forest Fire Lookout Registry, 1939 to 1941Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1950 AbandonedAbandoned in 1950Sources: 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.

Fog Mountain is in Idaho County, in the Nez Perce National Forest, about 14 miles west-southwest of the Moose Creek Ranger Station.1

The earliest lookout on record was a log cabin with a cupola, built in 1924.1,2 An L-4 cab replaced it in 1935.1,2 The Forest Service says the L-4 design was constructed between 1929 and 1953, and it describes the model as a pre-cut frame lookout measuring 14 by 14 feet.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Mr. LG 'Jud' Morris as a staffer from 1939 to 1941, citing the Former Forest Fire Lookout Registry.4

Firelookout.com dates the abandonment to 1950 and says the lookout is no longer on the site.1 Forest Lookouts and Idaho Fire Lookouts both give 1950 for abandonment.4,2 The banner on the firelookout.com page gives 1924 to 1935 instead, which conflicts with its own text. That end year matches the L-4 replacement, which may explain it, but the page does not say so.1

The Idaho lookout list at firelookout.org marks the site as gone.5 No source we read describes what remains of the lookout today.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site "Drive-Up Abandoned / Destroyed."4 Forest Service road 319 leads to the Fog Mountain Trailhead, which needs a four-wheel drive vehicle unless visitors hike or ride in on horseback.6 That trailhead page does not describe the lookout site itself. From the trailhead, the Fog Mountain Trail climbs the mountain's steep flanks.6

  1. Fog Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://www.firelookout.com/id/fogmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Fog Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/fog-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookout Styles, Nez Perce National Forest, USDA Forest Service, https://fs.usda.gov/media/259212 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Fog Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/fog-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho lookout list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Fog Mountain Trailhead, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/nezperce-clearwater/recreation/fog-mountain-trailhead (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Fog Mountain Lookout
Fog Mountain 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, 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.