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Fire lookout · Adams County, Idaho

Granite Mountain Lookout (Payette National Forest)

Also known as Granite Mountain

Payette NF lookout near McCall: camp 1913, 1916 pole tower, present 20-ft L-4 tower built 1955; NHLR-registered 2020 and staffed in season, though one FS guide says unmanned.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Hike-in via Trail #165 (non-motorized); sources do not describe rules for entering the tower itself

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 2.5 miles, climbing just under 2,000 ft, from Granite Mountain Trailhead off Goose Lake Road about 12.5 miles north of Highway 55. Trail page lists the New Meadows office as temporarily closed until further notice.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerPresent 20-foot treated timber L-4 tower (built 1955); earlier 10-foot pole tower with 12 by 12 ft cab (1916); site a camp from 1913The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
8,478 ft (2,584 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Payette National Forest (McCall Ranger District per recreation guide; New Meadows Ranger District per trail page)
Land
Federal land
Location
Adams County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.09345, −116.20734
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-granite-mountain-payette-national-forest

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1913 EventSite established as a campSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1916 Built10-foot pole tower with 12 by 12 ft cab builtSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1916 and 1955
  4. 1955 BuiltPresent 20-foot treated timber L-4 tower constructed; NHLR 'Built' field gives 1955Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  5. 1956 First staffedEarliest entry on the Idaho Fire Lookouts staff list (citing the Former Forest Fire Lookout Registry)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1956 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 29, 2020 as NHLR US 1433, ID 125Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 2025 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts visit (post dated July 18, 2025) found the tower staffed, with a helicopter resupply visitSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Granite Mountain Lookout sits in Adams County, Idaho, within the Payette National Forest, about 13 miles north-northwest of McCall.1,2 The site began as a camp in 1913.1,2 A 10-foot pole tower with a 12-by-12-foot cab went up in 1916, and the present 20-foot treated timber L-4 tower was built in 1955.1,3,2

Sources give different build years, because some count the camp and first tower and others count the tower standing now.1,3,2 The 1955 date is the one for the present tower, and the register, the Idaho site and firelookout.com all give it.1,3,2

The Idaho Fire Lookouts staff list begins with a 1956 entry and runs through 2026.3 The register says staffing happens every fire season, and firelookout.com says every summer.1,2 A July 18, 2025 visit described on the Idaho site found the tower staffed, with a helicopter resupply visit under way.3 A Forest Service recreation guide, however, calls the lookout unmanned.4 It is the only agency statement gathered here that says so.4

The register added the lookout on September 29, 2020, as US 1433.1,3

The lookout is reached on foot, as the Idaho site describes it: hike-in and staffed.3 Trail #165 gains nearly 2,000 feet over a bit more than two and a half miles from a Goose Lake Road trailhead about 12.5 miles north of Highway 55, and it is non-motorized.5 Before a trip, check with the Forest Service: the trail page lists a New Meadows office as temporarily closed, while the recreation guide names the McCall Ranger District.5,4

  1. Granite Mountain Lookout (Payette National Forest), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/granite-mountain-lookout-payette-national-forest/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Granite Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/granitemtn308.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Granite Mountain, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/granite-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Granite Mountain Lookout, U.S. Forest Service recreation guide, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/111499 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Granite Mountain Trail #165, Payette National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/payette/recreation/trails/granite-mountain-trail-165 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Granite Mountain Lookout - 2017
Granite Mountain Lookout - 2017 (2017)Photo: Keith Lanom, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Granite Mountain Lookout - 1953
Granite Mountain Lookout - 1953 (1953)Photo: US Forest Service, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Granite Mtn. in 1948
Granite Mtn. in 1948 (1948)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Herb Blanchard, via firelookout.com · source
Granite Mtn. in 1953
Granite Mtn. in 1953 (1953)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Herb Blanchard, via firelookout.com · source
Granite Mtn. in 1955
Granite Mtn. in 1955 (1955)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Herb Blanchard, via firelookout.com · source
Granite Mtn. L.O.
Granite Mtn. L.OPhoto: the U.S. Forest Service and Herb Blanchard, via firelookout.com · source
Granite Mountain
Granite MountainPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1955
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1916

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, height, staffing, photos, 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
  4. 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
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.