Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho
Goat Mountain Lookout
Cupola cabin on Goat Mountain, Boundary County, ID (Kaniksu NF), dated 1924; destroyed or gone 1965; one staff name (1933-35); a 2024-updated article lists a concrete box on the mountain.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed or gone in 1965 per all three listings; a concrete box on Goat Mountain is listed among remnants of other lookouts, not tied to this one by name
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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in; no source describes current access
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabCupola cabinThe design: Cupola house
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1924
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Kaniksu National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Boundary County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 48.77780, −116.05948 sources disagree
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-goat-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 3.9 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
- 1924 BuiltListed as a cupola cabin dated 1924Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1933 StaffedCharley Forslund listed as lookout personnel for 1933 to 1935Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- No record between 1933 and 1965
- 1965 DestroyedDestroyed in 1965 per Rex's page and Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts lists it as gone in 1965Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1965 and 2024
- 2024 EventBoundary County lookout article, updated June 2024, lists a concrete box on Goat Mountain among remnants of other lookoutsSource: naturallynorthidaho.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Goat Mountain Lookout stood in the Kaniksu National Forest, about 13 miles northeast of Bonners Ferry in Boundary County, Idaho.1,2 The site is listed at an elevation of 6,779 feet.1,3
The lookout was a cupola cabin, dated to 1924.1,3 Charley Forslund is listed as lookout personnel for 1933 to 1935.1,3
Rex's Forest Fire Lookout Page and the Idaho Fire Lookouts site both say the lookout was destroyed in 1965.1,3 Forest Lookouts marks it as gone in the same year.2
A Boundary County article, first published in 2011 and updated in 2024, notes that traces of other county lookouts survive, including a concrete box on Goat Mountain.4 The article does not tie that box to this lookout by name.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in, but no source we read says whether it is open to visitors today.3
- Goat Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Rex's Forest Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/id/goatmtn234.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Goat Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/goat-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Goat Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/goat-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Fire Lookouts of Boundary County, Idaho, Naturally North Idaho, https://www.naturallynorthidaho.com/2011/03/fire-lookouts-of-boundary-county-idaho.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
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 710 m.
- FFLA: 48.77780, −116.05948
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 48.77311, −116.05292
The map uses the position from FFLA.
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- 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
- Fire Lookouts of Boundary County, Idaho (Naturally North Idaho) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Goat Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Goat Mountain Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Goat Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.