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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Grass Mountain Lookout

Boundary County lookout in the Kaniksu National Forest: platform tower and cabin in the 1930s, L-4 tower from 1936, destroyed in 1955.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1955 according to both Idaho histories; 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. No source read says whether the site is open to visitors.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerPlatform tower and cabin, later an L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.94641, −116.86146
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-grass-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 4.3 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. 1930 BuiltPlatform tower and cabin; sources give only the 1930sSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1932 First staffedDon Siblist, listed for 1932 to 1934Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1933 StaffedMaurice Purdy (Idaho list only)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1935 StaffedWesley Osborne (Idaho list gives 1935–1936; firelookout.com has 1936 only)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1936 BuiltL-4 tower; the sources do not say whether it replaced the platform towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1936 StaffedWesley Osborn (firelookout.com)Source: firelookout.com
  7. 1946 StaffedEarl MerryfieldSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1947 StaffedLeonard BrackebushSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 1949 Last staffedBurton Turner; last named lookout in these sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 1955 DestroyedDestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  11. 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.

Grass Mountain sits in Boundary County, Idaho, inside the Kaniksu National Forest.1,2 The lookout began in the 1930s as a platform tower with a cabin, and an L-4 tower is recorded for the site in 1936.1,3 A patrol point half a mile to the north went with it.1,3

Two lists name the people who staffed it, and they do not fully agree. One gives Don Siblist for 1932 to 1934, Wesley Osborn for 1936, Earl Merryfield for 1946, Leonard Brackebush for 1947 and Burton Turner for 1949.1 The other adds Maurice Purdy for 1933 and dates Wesley Osborne to 1935 and 1936, citing a Bonners Ferry Herald item from 1935.3 The lists differ on when Osborne started, and only the second names Purdy.1,3

Both lookout histories say the tower was destroyed in 1955.1,3

The state list marks the tower as gone.2 No source I found says what, if anything, remains on the summit today. An Idaho Fire Lookouts page labels the site "Hike-in" and gives its elevation as 6,205 feet.4 Whether the ground is open to visitors is not stated in these sources.4

  1. Grass Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/grassmtn234.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Grass Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/grass-mountain-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Grass Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/north-idaho-panhandle-region/grass-mountain-lookout-2/ (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, 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.