FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Freezeout Ridge Lookout

Also known as Freezeout Ridge (Mountain)

30-foot L-4 pole tower on Freezeout Ridge, built 1937 and destroyed about 1971; a 2025 visit reported cement footings on site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed about 1971; cement footings reported on site in a 2025 visit

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site drive-up; the August 2025 visit report gives no access rules

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot pole L-4 tower, with an earlier log cabin and crow's nest (1912) and log cabin (1923)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1912
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Potlatch Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.99856, −116.02818 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-freezeout-ridge

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 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. 1912 BuiltLog cabin and crow's nest lookoutSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1915 EventA Coeur d'Alene association fire committee report calls it the Clearwater Timber Protective Association's lookoutSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1915 StaffedJohn Swanson, per a Clearwater Republican item of September 17, 1915Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1919 StaffedWilliam Niesham and Lillie Neisham; a June 1919 wedding notice says the honeymoon would be spent at the lookoutSources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1920 StaffedHenry Thompson (White Pines & Fire Book)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1923 BuiltLog cabin built at the south end of the ridgeSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1937 Built30-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1937 and 1964
  9. 1964 StaffedDan LeroySource: idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 1965 StaffedDan William Green; last staffer listedSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  11. 1966 EventClearwater and Potlatch Timber Protective Associations mergedSource: cptpa.com
  12. 1971 DestroyedTower destroyed about 1971Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  13. No record between 1971 and 2025
  14. 2025 EventVisit report (August 14, 2025): cement footings from the L-4 tower found; cabin location thought to be foundSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  15. 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.

Freezeout Ridge, which a 1915 report calls Freezeout Mountain, rises to 5,903 feet about 11 miles east of Clarkia in Shoshone County.1,2 A log cabin and crow's nest went up there in 1912.1,3,2 John Swanson was the lookout in September 1915, according to a Clearwater Republican item quoted on the Forest Lookouts site.2,3 That same year, a fire committee report from the Coeur d'Alene association calls the station the Clearwater Timber Protective Association's lookout, while the two lookout sites name the Potlatch association.2,3,1 The Clearwater and Potlatch associations stayed distinct until a merger in 1966.4

In June 1919, a wedding notice quoted on the Forest Lookouts site said the newlyweds would spend their honeymoon at the lookout.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists William Niesham and Lillie Neisham for 1919, and the two sources spell the surname differently.3,2 The same site also lists Henry Thompson for 1920 and a run of names in the 1960s, including Dan Leroy in 1964 and Dan William Green in 1965.3

A log cabin went up at the south end of the ridge in 1923.3 A pole tower 30 feet high, fitted with an L-4 cab, followed in 1937.1,2 The tower was destroyed about 1971.1,3,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site as drive-up.3 A visit report dated August 14, 2025 says the writers found cement footings from the L-4 tower and think they located the 1923 cabin, but that little else is left beyond the views.3 No source says whether the site is open to the public today.

  1. Freezeout Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/freezeoutridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Freezeout Ridge (Mtn), Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/freezeout-ridge-mtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Freezeout Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/freezeout-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. About Us, Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association, https://www.cptpa.com/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Freezeout Ridge Lookout
Freezeout Ridge LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 2.0 km (1.2 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.99856, −116.02818
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 47.01639, −116.02472

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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: design, height, agency, 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, height, status, agency, 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.