Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho
Grassy Mountain Lookout
Shoshone County, ID: 1924 log cabin with cupola, then a 30-ft L-4 pole tower (c.1936), destroyed 1962 or late 1950s; nothing left but the view, drive-up site.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed 1962 per Idaho Fire Lookouts and WillhiteWeb.com, or late 1950s per firelookout.com; Idaho Fire Lookouts says nothing is left but the view
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.
Access
Open to the public. WillhiteWeb.com says the site can be driven to the very top, several Forest Service roads access the mountain, and the site should be open for quite some time; no closure described
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- WillhiteWeb.com lists hiking distance as drive up; no trail needed
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (c.1936), replacing a log cabin with cupola built 1924The designs: L-4, Cupola house
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1924
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Coeur d'Alene National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Shoshone County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 47.78982, −116.20572
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-grassy-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 its recorded height.
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
- 1924 BuiltLog cabin with cupola. Dates conflict (1924 in most sources, 1925-26 photo captions, 1927-28 packer recollection); see resolved_conflictsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1927 StaffedKnown staff listed as Bliss Haynes and Glenn Maryott, each marked (Diary)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1936 Replaced by a new structure30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab replaced the log cabinSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
- No record between 1936 and 1962
- 1962 DestroyedIdaho Fire Lookouts and WillhiteWeb.com give 1962; firelookout.com gives the late 1950sSources: idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com, firelookout.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.
The first lookout on Grassy Mountain was a log cabin with a cupola, put up in 1924 about 17 miles north of Kellogg in Shoshone County, Idaho.1,2,3 Sources do not agree on when the work began.2,4 The Idaho Fire Lookouts site quotes a packer, Ken Maryott, who recalled the lookout being built in 1927 or 1928.2 Photo captions on WillhiteWeb.com put construction work in 1925 and 1926.4
In 1936 a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab replaced the cabin.1,3,4 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page lists two people as known staff for 1927, Bliss Haynes and Glenn Maryott, each tagged "(Diary)".2
Sources also differ on when the tower was destroyed. Idaho Fire Lookouts and WillhiteWeb.com give 1962, with WillhiteWeb.com allowing for the late 1950s, while firelookout.com says the late 1950s.1,2,4
Today, Idaho Fire Lookouts says only the view remains.2 WillhiteWeb.com says that as of 2025, logging several years earlier had opened a full 360-degree view, that the site can be driven to the very top, and that several Forest Service roads access the mountain.4 It also says the site should be open for quite some time.4
- Grassy Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/grassymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grassy Mtn Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/grassy-mtn-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grassy Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/grassy-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grassy Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/grassy_mountain_lookout/pictures_065.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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
- 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: 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: design, height, 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, 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
- Grassy Mountain Lookout Site (WillhiteWeb.com) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Grassy Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Grassy Mtn Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Grassy 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.