Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho
Grouse Ridge Lookout
Grouse Ridge lookout, Nez Perce NF: a 1926 crow's nest, a 1928 log cabin with cupola, staffed 1945, destroyed about 1950. No source describes the site now.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed about 1950 according to the sources that give a year; 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?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site as hike-in.
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabLog cabin with cupola (1928), after a 1926 crow's nestThe design: Cupola house
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1926
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Nez Perce National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Idaho County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 45.88644, −114.92982 sources disagree
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-grouse-ridge
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 4.1 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
- 1926 BuiltCrow's nestSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1928 BuiltLog cabin with cupolaSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1928 and 1945
- 1945 StaffedSpence A Dewey listed as a lookout, citing a former forest fire lookout registrySource: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1950 DestroyedGiven as 1950 by firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Forest Service list; Forest Lookouts says c.1950Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.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.
Grouse Ridge sat on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho County, about 25 miles east-northeast of Elk City, at 6,323 feet.1,2 The Forest Service list gives a crow's nest in 1926 and a log cabin with a cupola in 1928.3,4 Firelookout.com and Forest Lookouts describe the same two stages.1,5
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Spence A. Dewey as staff in 1945, crediting a registry of former fire lookouts.2 The same page names Harry Farris with no year, citing a source titled Faces of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness.2
Every source that gives a year for the end agrees on 1950, with Forest Lookouts saying about 1950.1,2,5,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site as hike-in and destroyed.2
No source read describes what remains at the site today. The hike-in label describes how to reach the spot, not whether anything is still standing there.2
- Grouse Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/grouseridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grouse Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/grouse-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, compiled by Cindy L. Schacher, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- History of Forest Fire Lookouts on the Nez Perce National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259214 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grouse Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/grouse-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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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 location by 690 m.
- FFLA: 45.88644, −114.92982
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 45.89129, −114.93546
The map uses the position from FFLA.
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: 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, 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
- Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts (U.S. Forest Service (compiled by Cindy L. Schacher, April 2010)) (opens another site)
- History of Forest Fire Lookouts on the Nez Perce National Forest (U.S. Forest Service) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Grouse Ridge on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Grouse Ridge Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Grouse Ridge 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.