FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Goblin Knob Lookout

Gabled L-4 cab on Goblin Knob, Boundary County, ID, built 1931 for the Priest Lake TPA; destroyed 1972; two staff names (1933, 1938); no current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1972 per Rex's page and Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts marks it gone in 1972; no source describes the site now

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
Ground-level cabGabled L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Priest Lake Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.67009, −116.74929
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-goblin-knob

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. 1931 BuiltGabled L-4 cab built in 1931Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1933 StaffedJuell Turley listed as known staff (Fire Lookout Museum, via Idaho Fire Lookouts)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1938 StaffedLawerence Olsen, spelled that way in the source, listed as known staff (Fire Lookout Museum, via Idaho Fire Lookouts)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1938 and 1972
  5. 1972 DestroyedDestroyed in 1972 per Rex's page and Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts lists it as gone in 1972Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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.

Goblin Knob Lookout stood in Boundary County, Idaho, about nine miles east-northeast of Nordman, at an elevation of 6,606 feet.1,2 Forest Lookouts lists the Priest Lake Timber Protective Association as the agency.3

The cab was a gabled L-4 design, built in 1931.1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists two known staff members: Juell Turley in 1933, and Lawerence Olsen in 1938, spelled that way in the source.2

The cab was destroyed in 1972.1,2 Forest Lookouts marks the site as gone in the same year.3 It lists the site under Boundary County, with the code 61N-3W-5.3 Rex's page and the Idaho Fire Lookouts site both credit the Fire Lookout Museum for the lookout's photographs.1,2

None of the three listings we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the site is open to visitors.1,2,3

  1. Goblin Knob Fire Lookout Cabin, Rex's Forest Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/id/goblinknob.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Goblin Knob Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/goblin-knob-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Goblin Knob, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/goblin-knob.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Goblin Knob Lookout
Goblin Knob 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.

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, 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: 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, status, agency, staffing, 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.