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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Gold Hill Lookout

Idaho County lookout: 30-foot L-4 tower built 1931 about five miles east of Lochsa; sources disagree on whether it was destroyed or removed in 1954.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed or removed in 1954 (sources differ on the wording); no source describes what remains

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in; no source describes access today

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.34620, −115.21499
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-gold-hill-2

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 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 Built30-foot L-4 tower, about 5 miles east of the Lochsa Historic Ranger StationSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1938 EventPhotograph of Wayne Tautfest inside the lookout (USFS post, 2018)Source: facebook.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1954
  4. 1954 DestroyedDestroyed, per firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the 2016 Forest Service listSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  5. 1954 RemovedRemoved, per the 2018 Forest Service post (conflicts with destroyed)Source: facebook.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.

The Gold Hill lookout in Idaho County was a 30-foot L-4 tower built in 1931 on the Clearwater National Forest.1,2,3,4,5 It stood about five miles east of the Lochsa Historic Ranger Station, at an elevation of 6,449 feet.4,2

A 2018 Forest Service post shares a 1938 photograph of Wayne Tautfest inside the lookout.4

Sources disagree on how the tower ended in 1954. Firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and a 2016 Forest Service-hosted list all say it was destroyed that year.1,2,3 The 2018 post says the tower was removed in 1954 instead.4

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, and none says whether it is open to the public. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in.2

  1. Gold Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/goldhill292.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Gold Hill Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/gold-hill-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Gold Hill Lookout, U.S. Forest Service Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/NPClwNFs/posts/gold-hill-lookoutit-is-rare-to-find-historic-photographs-taken-inside-lookoutsth/2133595496665781/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (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: 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, 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.